Accepting you for who you are
by Theheartlessscholar
Summary: One night during one of Spider-Man's battles, he is saved by an old friend that he hasn't seen in over a decade. As their feelings start to increase for one another, they wonder if the other person feels anything for them also. Spider-Man X SonSon. 2nd fanfic. Lemon in later chapters
1. The Rampaging Rhino

Well, my second story posted. This one took me quite some time seeing that procrastination was making me go crazy and I just kept putting it off. I don't think anybody has ever done a SonSon fic before so why not be the first to do it? I hope you enjoy reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own characters and etc.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

What a beautiful night. The moonlight is shining down, the tourists are buying souvenirs, people are running away from the Rhino's rampage. Okay, maybe it wasn't such a beautiful night for New York.

"Oh man, J.J. should start paying me more if he wants to get more pictures. I'm gonna go broke if I don't get a raise soon from buying all these cameras."

Peter Parker aka your neighborhood Spider-Man was just doing what he usually does which was trying to save the denizens of New York from yet another catastrophe. What better way to spend your night then to fight off some lunatic in a rhino-shaped exoskeleton armor?

"This is ridiculous, I think I'm gonna have to call the Bronx Zoo next time so they can take care of this guy and I can get some decent sleep. I mean they are a zoo and specialize in animals so this should be right up their alley."

Swinging through Times Square, Spider-Man was currently keeping track of the Rhino to make sure he didn't cause any casualties or do much building property; the second one was kind of inevitable.

Cars were flying everywhere, people were screaming their asses off, police were trying their best to restrain Rhino but that actually didn't do much help seeing as well, he's wearing some real thick armor so P226 rounds really can't do much.

The Rhino was going crashing through everything like he was a monster truck on steroids. Well, he's pretty big as it is so maybe there's some use of steroids, so who knows?

As the rampage continued, Rhino was going uptown and causing pandemonium before he reached Central Park. Seeing that Spider-Man was on his trail, he stopped to pick up a few cars to hurl at the webbed superhero only to have him dodging every one with his agility.

"Hey O'Hirn, I'm sure glad nobody gave you a Hawkeye costume because your aim sucks man!" Landing on the ground, Spider-Man made sure to be careful of what could possibly result in him being trampled over like the bug that he was, all puns intended.

"I'm gonna crush you bug boy, there's no way I'm going back to that prison. I kind of like my freedom if you know what I mean," Rhino was throwing more cars at Spider-Man hoping to get at least one hit in before he left.

Dodging all the cars again, he got to the top of a random light post and stayed there seeing that he was a bit safe.

"But everybody would miss you if you left, I know all the inmates back at Rikers would cause an uproar if their Russian friend just left without saying goodbye all of a sudden," He saw another car flying towards him and immediately dodged.

Rhino was throwing more cars as he was getting more frustrated with the arachnid savior. Seeing that he was out of cars, he went to Central park hoping to escape the authorities. With a simple ram, he crushed through the gates of the southeastern entrance and tore down the trees not caring who was in his way.

Rhino was destroying a lot of property not caring about anything or anybody that stood in his way. He was really determined on not going back to prison. Going through the large foliage that made up the nature part, he figured that maybe Spider-Man couldn't see him because of how dense the forest were due to the many trees covering it. It seems that Rhino wasn't as dumb as everyone made it to seem.

Seeing that Spider-Man wasn't on his tail, he stopped running until he reached the Great Lawn and decided to catch a breath. He figured that Spider-Man probably got lost so he figured he needed to relax, "Hah, hah, I don't see old bug breath around, he probably got lost."

"How wrong you are," all of a sudden Spider-Man had appeared from the road of destruction that Rhino had left in his wake, "I mean you're like the armored elephant in the room. Did you really think that you were going to get away wearing something like that? Tsk, tsk, I thought you were smarter than that Rhino."

Unbeknownst to him, Rhino was charging directly at him and got a tree stuck in his horn when he dodged. He pulled it out before charging at him again and caught a bit of his side, this sent Spider-Man flying for about 40 feet causing some pain around his midsection.

'Shit, that really hurts. If I'm caught by something like that again, I'm gonna be done for. Not the first time I've fought this bozo but that doesn't make it any easier, what I need to figure out is how I'm gonna knock him out without taking any more damage. Guess I'm gonna have to wing it.'

And wing it he did, he jumped at Rhino hoping to catch him off guard which he did jumping on his back hoping to find a latch, a power source or something that would help deactivate the suit. He was punching the back of the suit and but it did little damage to him. Rhino had caught him by the leg and flung him off his back, he had a devilish smile seeing Spider-Man down on the ground.

With a roar, he pulled one of his feet back like a bull and started charging at Spider-Man. Spider-Man thought this was going to be the end, 'Aw man, I guess this is it. It's just too bad I couldn't say goodbye to Aunt May and the others.' Just as he prepared himself for the inevitable, a mysterious figure came from the sky and knocked Rhino off his toes.

"Wow, you're a big guy. You actually took the brunt of my attack, not bad for a human."

Spider-Man looked around for the person that saved him and found the person sitting on of all things, a cloud. As he was looking at the person, he found that the person was a young woman, had a staff and a monkey tail?! He then noticed the predominantly red outfit that she had. The little cloud, staff, and a monkey tail, he put everything together and knew who this person was and it's been a long time since he last saw her.

"Hey SonSon, what's up and thanks for the save!"

The woman looked around for who called her name out and found that there was a familiar looking person with an embroidery of a spider on the front of the costume. Seeing that she knew who this was, smiled brightly and went down to check up on him to make sure he was alright.


	2. Reunion after a decade

Well, my second story posted. This one took me quite some time seeing that procrastination was making me go crazy and I just kept putting it off. I don't think anybody has ever done a SonSon fic before so why not be the first to do it? I hope you enjoy reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own characters and etc.

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Hey Spider-Man! Aw man, long time no see." She hugged him but he let out a groan which indicated that he was hurt and immediately let go, "Oops, sorry about that but anyways what's up?"

He pointed to the Rhino who was now getting up from the hit he had just taken, "Well...there's that guy over there who almost made me a part of Central Park."

As soon as he got up, his eyes had so much anger that if looks could kill, his could put you in a funeral quickly.

"Who's the fucking jackass that did that, huh?! Who?!" As soon as he turned to face Spider-Man, he noticed somebody he'd never seen before and started scanning the person up and down.

"Who the fuck are you?" He then noticed the tail and the primate like features and even more questions went through his head. "What are you supposed to be, some daughter of Donkey Kong or something?"

SonSon then looked at Spider-Man, "Um, who's this guy supposed to be?"

"Alexander O'Hirn aka the Rhino, he broke out of prison about a week ago and now I'm trying to put him back, not really doing a good job with that."

"Oh okay, bad guy, got it. Let's finish him off then." She took out her staff and got into battle position ready to fight.

"Was it you who did that you monkey bitch?" He said while getting ready to charge.

SonSon scoffed at what she heard, "Like that's the first time I've heard that one. Oh well, let's put this guy away. Spider-Man, distract him for a bit."

"You sure about that? I mean you did just see what he did to my side, right?"

"Don't worry, I'm pretty confident in your abilities so go!"

And as he heard that, he jumped and started hitting Rhino from all angles hoping to find a way to deactivate the suit but no luck. He looked over to SonSon who was saying Buddhist chants and her staff was glowing but he had to focus on the person behind him. His adrenaline was kicking in and his hits were doing a bit more damage than both of them were expecting.

Rhino was actually starting to get dizzy and starting punching the air hoping that he would catch some air. He did try going after SonSon but Spider-Man was too busy keeping him on his toes playing the role of the distraction.

"Hey, stay still so I can punch you!"

"And ruin my good looks? Some girl might ask me to the prom one day so I'm gonna need this face."

As they were still fighting, SonSon had been chanting for 3 minutes until it was time for the final preparation. She took her staff and it began glowing a mystical light showing that it was ready for use. She felt that her friend had served his role and now it was her turn.

"Hey Spider-Man, get out of the way! I'm ready!"

He saw that she was ready to fight so he finally decided to leave things to her. He swung to a nearby tree that wasn't damaged and let the SonSon do what she had to do.

Rhino saw that Spider-Man had finally left so he looked towards the young monkey woman and with blind rage, charged at her. He wanted payback for the hit she had given him and was determined to take her out, permanently.

Sonson saw the armored man charging and she held her staff in the air. Her staff started glowing and it grew 20 times its original size. Seeing that it was ready, she had slammed the now overgrown staff directly at the Rhino and it caused a tremor throughout the park. Rhino immediately fell down and was down on the ground face first in the dirt.

"Wow, that wasn't too bad."

Spider-Man immediately went next to her still holding his side, "Yeah, for you maybe. I'm still injured over here."

"Oh, don't bitch about it. You're Spider-Man, you'll heal."

"Doesn't really make me feel better but you're right."

SonSon laughed at him, "So what do we do about this guy over here?" inquiring about the unconscious Rhino.

"Wait for the authorities, I suppose. Thanks for the help; you really saved my butt over there."

"Eh, no problem. Just like old times, wouldn't you say?"

Spider-Man thought about it, 'Yeah, just like old times.'

As they were talking about the mess that happened in the city, they didn't notice that Rhino was starting to get up. He saw that both of them were standing there together and decided that he could kill two birds with one stone.

'I'm gonna turn them into mush, how dare they do that to me!'

He got up and started charging at them ready to take them out, "I'm gonna take you all out if it's the last thing I do!"

The two heroes heard Rhino's yell and SonSon's eyes widened at what she saw, 'How did he get up from the Ruyi Bang? That armor must be really something.' She had another way to put him down which didn't require any chanting and was a bit more efficient.

Spider-Man then looked at Rhino, then at SonSon trying to figure something out, "Um, I don't know about you but I can't distract him anymore."

"Don't worry; judging from the damage he took, I can say he won't be up for long. Don't worry, I got it." She grabbed some hairs on her arms and Spider-Man was a bit confused at what she was going to do but decided to let her do it if it meant them being alive.

"Shienbu!" she screamed out and the hairs that she grabbed had turned into little monkeys and were all over Rhino. He was stopped in his tracks and was trying to take the little monkeys off.

"Hey, get of me you little bastards!" He tried taking them off but it seems they were overwhelming him and he was starting to freak out.

"Shall we take him out?"

"Yup!"

The two heroes ran towards Rhino and jumped up hitting him in the face with a kick from Spider-Man and a staff strike from SonSon. He came crashing down in the lawn and was knocked out for good.

"Well, he's done for good now." SonSon gave Spider-Man a thumbs up indicating their success.

"I'm gonna tie him up now so just wait up for a bit."

"Sure, no problem."

After going to tie Rhino while he was still unconscious and tying him up, they left him for the authorities while both of them left. They got to the top of the Empire State Building and just sat up there talking about what they were up to.

"So what brings you to New York City SonSon?"

"Well, I'm living here now, believe it or not. I've never really seen the city before so I decided that coming to the United States could give me the chance to fully experience it."

Having taken his mask off, Peter's eyes widened at what she said and even though he wasn't showing it physically, he was happy to see her living in his home state. It would probably make things easier for them to meet up and hang out together.

"Really, I'm flattered you want to live here during this economy. Why didn't you stay in your village? Are they doing ok?"

SonSon looked into the sky and responded to his question, "I like New York City; it looks so lively and fresh that I felt I just had to experience it. And to answer your questions: I like my village, don't get me wrong but I'd like to get out of China and see what the world has to offer; Yeah, my village is doing okay, they have my dad to take care of them and they actually kind of encouraged me to leave since I'm still young. They felt I shouldn't waste my youth just living in the village and letting the days go by." She then looked at him hoping for him to answer some questions of her own. "So what are you up to these days Mr. Parker?"

"Well, I'm still scraping by with what I get from the Daily Bugle. My boss can be such a hardhead at times that I wonder how he's still our boss. All in all, I'm doing great."

Peter and SonSon's relationship were that of friends since the days of the Abyss Wars when they had to save the world from being consumed by the universal demon Abyss. It seems that they had a good relationship with each other as much as with the rest of the other heroes. It was kind of disheartening to separate after so many adventures but they did have their own individual lives. Peter did always think SonSon was cute but she was pretty young at the time and he was with Mary Jane so there's no way in hell could he do anything at that time. Now he was 32, and she was 28. They had grown into matured adults that had their own lives to live.

SonSon stood up to enjoy the crisp air and the beautiful moonlight showering its lunar rays upon her. Peter took a good look at her, she had definitely grown into a beautiful young woman: she had a bigger bust, her hips became more well-rounded, her then-short hair had reached the middle of her back and she had the look of a woman instead of a young girl.

"...lo, hello! Peter, can you hear me?" SonSon was currently waving her hand in front of him trying to gain his attention until he snapped out of it with a simple response.

"Huh, did you say something?"

SonSon had started laughing at Peter's dumbfounded face when he was just getting his mind back together. How could he allow himself to be distracted like that, he's Spider-Man for goodness sake! He should be one of the most alert people due to his spider sense.

"That look on your face is priceless but you should really try your best not to stare like that at girls for future reference, they may find it a little weird."

"Ah, sorry about that. It's just that you've really changed in the last 10 years and you look so much different." He said this sheepishly while nervously chuckling.

SonSon was caught off guard at what she heard and started blushing. Not many guys really complimented her looks but more her strength seeing that her grandfather was the legendary Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King. It did make her feel good that she had some feminine appeal, especially that she was a tomboy when she was younger.

"Thanks Peter. Not many guys acknowledge me looks wise so it's pretty nice to hear you say something like that." She was still blushing but shook it off to get back to reality.

"Trust me, it's not a problem. So what are you gonna do now?"

"Me, I'm gonna go home because I have work in the morning. I need as much sleep as possible and Chun-Li might be wondering where I am at the moment."

A look of shock came upon Peter's face wondering if he heard right.

"Um, did you just say Chun-Li?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?"

Peter didn't know his Chinese friend was in the states. Knowing her, she was probably wondering why he never really contacted her to meet up and hang out one day and she was probably pissed. If he ever ran into her, he had no idea what she might do since she did have a temper at times.

"Okay, okay. Chun-Li Xiang is your roommate? As in "The Strongest Woman in the World" Chun-Li Xiang?"

"Oops, my bad. I should have told you who I was living with. I'm living with Chun-Li and Morrigan at the moment."

Hearing this made Peter's jaw drop, "Morrigan lives with you too? What is going on here?"

Seeing that Morrigan Aensland from the house of Aensland was living with him, it made it even crazier. Now see, Morrigan was a succubus which meant that she need sustenance in 'certain' ways. During the Abyss wars, she tried flirting with Peter to see if he was going to help her but he always responded with "I have a girlfriend so sorry" This made her persistent but it also made her develop some sort of attraction to the young man at the time. She was hoping that he would give in but found out he was very adamant in what he said. Seeing that he wasn't going to falter and succumb to his desires, she said she would come back one day and that the offer was still on the table in case he ever wanted to take it.

"Yeah, we live in an apartment in the Upper West Side near the Museum of Natural History. It's a pretty pricey place but we can manage."

That last sentence really took the cake. They were living in a pretty damn nice apartment and he just found out about this now. Well, it's not like he contacted Chun-Li to check up on her so he pretty much had no one to blame but himself because of his negligence.

Peter held his head down in shame, "You guys are living so much better than me. What am I doing with my life?"

"I wouldn't really worry about that too much. It's just a quaint medium-sized apartment, nothing too special. You could come over there one day if you want."

Peter thought about it, he would be able to see Chun-Li and pray she wouldn't skin him alive. What else did he have to lose?

"Alright, I'll do that one day. Also, where do you work if I may ask?"

"I work as a chef in an Asian themed restaurant somewhere around First Ave. It seems that the owners loved my cooking so much that they hired me on the spot without an interview, talk about lucky. You should visit one day and order something. Well, I'm gonna be off now and head home, we should hang out one day and catch up."

"Wait, how did you get hired? They didn't mind the tail?"

"They actually can't see my tail since I keep it tucked in when I'm at work and I can always make it invisible. Unlike my crazy grandfather who could never do it. Suck on that grandpa!" Somewhere in the world, SonSon the first felt a chill in his back.

Peter decided to stop her for a quick second before she left, "SonSon!"

"Yes?"

A blush actually appeared at his face as he decided to just let the question come out, "Uh, if you're not busy, would you want to go out sometime? Just the two of us?"

A smile accompanied with a blush appeared on her face as she was trying to comprehend what she heard. This question she felt she had to ask though.

"Peter, are you a player?"

Wow, what a way to throw somebody off. He wondered why she asked him that.

"Um, what do you mean?" He had no idea what she was talking about.

With a sigh she said what was on her mind, "Aren't you dating that Mary Jane Watson girl? I don't think she would appreciate you asking another girl out. In case you're wondering how I knew, Chun-Li told me that you was going out with her."

'Chun-Li again? I think she's doing this to spite me for not keeping in contact with her. Can't really say I can blame her but does she have to do this? Let me clear the air now.'

"No, I'm not dating Mary Jane. We actually broke up 4 years ago. It seems our lives were a bit too hectic for us to keep being in relationship. She went to Paris for a modeling career and told me to contact her whenever I wanted to in case we ever wanted to talk." He spoke with a sad smile with what he just said but it was good to let somebody know. "It's not really a sad thing, we're still friends. We just decided to see other people."

"Oh Peter, I'm sorry. I didn't know you felt like this." She moved closer to him to give him some comfort.

"Don't worry, you don't have to apologize. It felt good talking to you about it; I haven't even really talked to my aunt about it and she's the closest person I know. But back to what I asked earlier, do you want to go out sometime, get a coffee or something? At least you know that I'm not a player."

With a scratch of her chin, she thought about it and decided that nothing really bad could happen so why not?

"Ok, we can do that. Just as friends though."

"That's alright, as long as we're able to do something together or meet up."

Peter was actually pretty happy that she agreed to meet up with him one of these days. He was a bit disappointed when she said that they were only doing this as friends but for him, it was good enough. He agreed that things should start slow instead of just escalating real quickly. Maybe one day something would happen but he would have to be patient for now.

SonSon looked at her phone and was shocked to look at the time.

"Oh man, it's 12:15! I really gotta get home now so I can get ready for tomorrow. Peter, put your phone in my phonebook so we can schedule a meeting one day."

"Ok, hand it over here," She took out her phone and Peter typed in some numbers before he gave it back to her.

Seeing that she gave him her phone, he decided to do the same thing and took out his phone asking her to do the same. As she did this, they decided that they did have to get home and prepare themselves for the next day.

"Nimbus!" she called out for her puffy form of transportation. A white medium-sized cloud came out of nowhere and stopped at the building where its owner was located.

"Well Peter, I guess this is my time to go. I hope to see you around sometime." She gave him a hug and stepped on the cloud with her feet firmly planted to ensure that she couldn't fall off.

"Good night SonSon, it was nice seeing you again." He sent a wave to her indicating a goodbye gesture.

"Same thing goes for you. Well, good night Peter and I'll be sure to call you sometime when I have some free time. You should do the same. Until then, goodbye!" The young monkey woman then flew off to her home and waved him goodbye knowing this wouldn't be their last meeting together.

Seeing that it was late, Peter decided to head back to Queens so he could get some sleep also. After taking down a guy in rhino-shaped armor, he figured some rest would do him good; his side was still hurting also so that definitely had to be something he took care of when he got home.

"Well, time to head home. I hope we can meet with each other sometime soon. It would be nice if it was a date but hey, what can you do?" With this being said, he swung himself from building to building reaching the Queensboro Bridge hoping to reach home soon.

After reaching his home, Peter decided to eat a bit focusing on his photos for the Bugle editorials in the morning. He saw the bruise from Rhino and rubbed a pain soother on it before going to sleep. His thoughts did go to SonSon who he met earlier and was recollecting the memories of them together, he was really happy he saw her and just hoped that everything worked out for the best. Oh well, he decided to sleep and let fate play its role in their relationship.


	3. Meeting Up

Well, my second story posted. This one took me quite some time seeing that procrastination was making me go crazy and I just kept putting it off. I don't think anybody has ever done a SonSon fic before so why not be the first to do it? I hope you enjoy reading.

Disclaimer: I don't own characters and etc.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Two weeks went by, Peter and SonSon kept in contact as much as they possibly could. Unfortunately for them, their schedules were a bit too hectic and conflicting for them to meet up with each other; their jobs also swamped them with work with Peter editing photo portfolios and also taking pictures for sections of the newspaper and SonSon having to cook for numerous banquets and parties which definitely required a lot of energy.

Peter was now working on the portfolios for the upcoming issue of the Bugle and it was hard finding certain photos that stuck to a certain criteria which also made J.J. get on his case. Sometimes he would just feel like leaving work and never coming back but he did have a living to make until the next opportunity came.

"Oh man, J.J.'s really gonna be on my ass if I don't have these editorials done by the evening. If he knew what I was going through for these pictures, he'd probably give me a bit more sympathy. Wait, no he wouldn't, this is J. Jonah Jameson we're talking about! Anyways, let me just finish these editorials so I can go home. Maybe I can get SonSon to come out after this."

"Hey Peter, you having a hard time?" asked Robbie Robertson, one of the head journalists and Peter's friend.

Peter looked up and saw his friend talking to him from where he was standing. For some reason, he always liked talking to Robbie, it was one of the few perks that the Daily Bugle had and he looked up to him as an idol there always asking him for advice.

"I'm ok Robbie, just doing all the stuff that J.J. wants me to do. I really wanted to leave early but that's not possible at this moment. Oh well, what can you do?"

"You're making it sound like you have a girl waiting for you out there," Robbie then got struck with some intuition, "Is that what it is Peter? Do you have a girl you're thinking of at the moment?"

Peter was shocked to say the least, how was Robbie able to deduce him so easily without giving any clues? Heh, this is probably one of the reasons he looked up to the man, he was able to figure him out a bit much easier than others.

"How did you know..." He was stopped by Robbie as he held his hand up stopping Peter from finishing his sentence.

"Trust me Peter, I know these kind of things. Remember, I was young once so you gain some wisdom to these things as you get older. Hey, how about I do some of this work to cut your workload? I'm sure that you wouldn't want to keep this lovely lady waiting much longer."

Wow, this came unprecedented. Peter had a chance after all so he could probably meet up with SonSon later once she was done with work also. This is why he loved Robbie as a brother, he was always there when he needed him.

"Wow Robbie, thanks! You've no idea how much this means for me. How can I repay you back man?"

"Hmm... Maybe you can buy me some food one day or get me out of my house for a while. I love my wife and all but sometimes I just need to get away from it all every once in a while, ya know?"

With a laugh, Peter made sure to mentally note that, "Ok Robbie, you got yourself a deal. Thanks man, it's much appreciated."

"Anytime Peter. Let's get down to it, shall we?"

So there was some hope after all. He almost thought that he was going to be fired if he didn't do all this but there was always Robbie looking out for him. He was grateful and hoped SonSon was having an easier time than him. Unbeknownst to Peter, SonSon was having a pretty crazy day herself.

The restaurant was packed with numerous people. There were so many customers demanding so much food that the workers were a bit overwhelmed and they thought they were going to die from exhaustion. Even somebody as effervescent as Sonson was having hard a hard time tending to the customers.

"Yes sir, your food will be with you shortly. Would you like to have something to drink while you wait?"

The man was contemplating his drink as he finally decided of a choice, "Yes, some mango sake please if you don't mind."

"Yes sir, I just need to see some ID and your sake will be on the way."

The customer figured she was right so he brought out his ID and showed it to her, now knowing that he was of legal age to drink, she called to the back of the kitchen to make the food and to deliver the customers's requested sake.

As she got the sake, SonSon was ready to deliver until she spilled the sake somewhere on the floor and just sighed in frustration as she went back to the kitchen to get another one. This was getting ridiculous, how did so many people start to appear in a matter of days?

The plethora of customers didn't stop her from doing her job. She started wondering why she was waiting tables when she should have been in the kitchen just cooking the food. Maybe because her boss was so nice, she decided to just do it without questioning it. Boy, was she surely regretting that.

After a long waiting shift, she finally got her much needed break. During her break, she went outside the restaurant seeing that she needed some fresh air and personally wanted to get away from all that had to deal with the restaurant. Seeing that she was having a hard time, she wondered about Peter who was also working and wondered if he was having a hard time.

"As much as I would like to check up on him, this break's gonna end soon so I should just leave him a message and hope he responds."

As soon as she did that, she looked at the time only to realize that her break was almost over. Seeing this, she went to the kitchen to make herself some food and after that immediately went back to work.

'Let's just get this day over with so I can leave.'

Going back to Peter. He was just now finishing up his portfolios with Robbie and the time showed that he had time to spare. With that last few edited photos, he put them into a folder and went to J.J.'s desk to put them inside his mail slot to show that he finished his tasks. It felt like there was a god watching over him is what he thought.

"Whoo-hoo, finally finished! Aw man, Robbie you have no idea how much this means to me. You really saved my ass back there. Who would've known what old Jonah would do if I didn't do this."

With a smile, the experienced black man put his hand on Peter's back to congratulate him for all the work.

"As I said before Peter, don't worry about it. Now if I'm correct, don't you have a lady to meet up with?"

Peter was really happy now, he got his work done and if he was lucky, he'd be able to meet with SonSon and spend a little time with her. Only as friends though. She'd remind him of that every time they spoke on the phone.

"Alright Robbie, I'm off! Thanks for the help again." He waved a hand at him to indicate he was leaving and proceed to meet up with SonSon if she had the time. His friend waved back at him giving a mutual gesture.

After leaving the Daily Bugle lobby, Peter took out his phone getting ready to call, he saw the message that she left and listened.

_Sorry Peter, I'm so swamped at work that I wanted to call you but I don't have the time to really talk you seeing that there's so many people. I promise once I leave work, I'll call you to check up on you. Hopefully, you're having an easier time at work than I am. Bye. *click*_

"Alright. Let's see if she's available right now." With this he proceeded to call SonSon but as her phone was ringing, there was no answer.

"Huh, maybe she's still working. I do remember she did tell me that I should go to her restaurant. Right now, it's 8:00 so I'll just walk around for a while before I take the train and see her work. I'd like to think of it as a surprise for her."

Seeing that he had some time to waste before meeting her, Peter went to the nearest park and just relaxed for a while thankful that nothing that required him to turn into Spider-Man was happening. It seems that the only person on his mind was SonSon. He decided that he would let an hour go by before calling her again.

After the day was done with all the serving to the guests, it was time for SonSon and her employees to clean up the restaurant. She wasn't used to this seeing that she only cooked since her job was a chef. Seeing so many plates and leftovers, she sighed at the tasks set upon her and wished it could just end already.

"Oh man, I never knew waiting would be this ridiculous. Thank goodness my job is only as a chef. I hope I don't have to do this next time." With a broom in one hand and a dustpan in the other, she got ready to clean up all the remnants of food laid across the floor of the restaurant.

An elderly Asian woman dressed in a yellow oriental-style shirt and black pants came out to see the place. She shook her head at the state of the restaurant and was really grateful she had her employers to help her out. She saw SonSon and immediately called out to her seeing that she had done a lot of work today even if it wasn't her job.

"Hey SonSon!"

The recipient of the call heard her name and turned her head around to the direction of where the voice came from and saw her boss standing next to the entrance of the kitchen.

"Oh... hey Madame Jade, *yawns*, don't worry, I'll be done with this as fast as I possibly can. Today was really lively, never thought I'd see this many people in one day." She walked over to her boss to talk to her while cleaning.

With a smile on her face, she patted SonSon's shoulder and rubbed it knowing that it might be sore from all the serving and cooking.

"Oh SonSon, I'm truly grateful for all that you did today. I know that you're not a waiter but it was really nice of you to help out today. And yes, you're right, there were a lot of people today. Business was a killing. We need more days like this."

SonSon froze and her eyes widened at what she just heard she froze at what the future would be like if she had to repeat what she did today. Unfortunately, she had no choice in the matter seeing that it was her job and just had to deal with it.

Madame Jade caught the shudders of SonSon's body and chuckled to herself a bit. She knew that she probably wouldn't feel like doing what she did today. Her job was first and foremost a chef so she made sure that she would spend a majority of her time in the kitchen instead of waiting tables; only calling her on rare occasions like today.

"Don't worry SonSon, you'll only be cooking next time something like this happens. At least you made a bit more money today than normal so that's a positive in this."

"Yeah, you're right. I got more tips than expected so it wasn't all bad. I wonder how Peter's doing."

This caught the old woman's ears as she heard her SonSon talk of somebody with a sort of endearing tone.

"Peter? SonSon, I didn't know you have a boyfriend. Is he waiting for you or something?"

This definitely took her by surprise. Why would she think that Peter was her boyfriend? As she said before, they were just close friends who know each other from long ago.

"Madame Jade, trust me. He's not my boyfriend, I'm not even considering going out with him. We're just very close friends and that's it. We talk every once in a while but that's it."

The way she said it made it sound very convincing so she decided to just leave it alone and let SonSon get back to the cleaning. Seeing that she did care for SonSon and was one of her best workers, she would let her decide when it was the right time to talk about it, until then, she would leave it alone.

"Ok SonSon. Let's just finish cleaning this place up so we can close up shop. Remember, we have another busy day tomorrow. Not as busy as today was but still, you know?"

"Ok, I'm almost done here anyway." She then went back to her cleaning of the floor and numerous other tasks that she had a responsibility for.

An hour of cleaning and it was finally time to leave. SonSon saw that it was after 9 and decided to clock out her shift. Right now, all she wanted to do was eat her peaches and soak in her bath. A tiring day does require some time to unwind.

As she changed her clothes, she grabbed her bag and left after saying goodbye to her coworkers and boss.

"Bye guys! Bye Madame Jade! See you tomorrow!"

Numerous farewells were coming from the other employers while they all waved her goodbye.

"Good night SonSon. I hope you have a safe trip home," said Madame Jade.

"Don't worry, I will." And then she left the restaurant. As soon as she stepped outside, her eyes widened when she saw somebody standing in front of the restaurant that caught her off guard.

"Peter? Is that you? What are you doing here? I thought you went home already or was still at work." Peter had been waiting for some time for her to come out seeing that he knew that she would be working pretty late and just decided to surprise here.

"I finished work early thanks to a friend helping me out and I called your phone earlier like two times after I left but you didn't pick up. I figured I could surprise you when you were done with work and we can take the train home."

"You left two calls for me?" After finding this out, she checked out her phone seeing that he actually called when it said 'Two missed calls' on the screen. She was so distracted with the cleaning that she didn't even bother to look at her phone for missed calls and just wanted to get home.

"Oh Peter, I'm real sorry about that! I was just so distracted at work that I didn't even manage to bother to check my phone." She bowed her head indicating how sorry she was.

Peter went up to her and rubbed her shoulder indicating that she didn't have to apologize. "SonSon, it's ok, you was just really working a lot. You don't have to apologize to me. I just really wanted to see you since you did say I should come by the restaurant one day to check it out."

Hmm, she did remember saying that one day to him. "Oh yeah, I did," she laughed a bit at herself remembering she did say that one day, "I just wished we met under different circumstances. *Yawn* I'm so damn tired right now."

"Well, do you want to go to the train so we can get to our homes?"

"Yeah, I just want to relax and soak in a bath eating my peaches." She stands by his side and starts walking to the train station discussing their day and what transpired throughout it.

"Wow, you must have some sort of luck on your side then. If only I had that one friend to help me out. I probably would've finished sooner like you did but what can you do?"

"Too be honest, I was just lucky. I'm really glad that Robbie was able to help me out. I don't what would've happened if I didn't get my job done by the time."

Arriving at the L train station at 1st avenue, they go inside and get ready to take the train to 14th street since it was the only way to access the trains that allowed them to reach their destination. As they waited for the train, Peter found out about her hectic day at the restaurant.

He laughed at her description of the day and the waiting service, "Really? I didn't think you were that much of a klutz waiting tables."

She glared at him when he was making fun of her waiting skills punching his chest hoping to stop him from making fun of her, "Oh well, excuse me Mr. Photographer! I just went through hell and back waiting on all those people. You've no idea what the restaurant industry is like so of course you're gonna laugh." He still laughed at her plight of the day. "Uh, you're such an ass at times Peter."

"What can I say, sometimes people have to suffer for me to feel better. No offense though SonSon."

"Whatever you say." She rolled her eyes at his words.

Once the train came, they got on it seeing that it wouldn't take them that long to get to 14th street seeing that it was only some stops away. The ride was pretty quick and they rode in silence looking at each other in a somewhat awkward way. It was more so SonSon since she wasn't really used to the closeness of men like the other women from her village. As they arrived at the 14th street stop, they got off and walked to the platform that had the yellow lines running.

"I guess this is where we wait, huh?" asked SonSon.

"I would assume so. Do you wanna talk for a while, while we wait for our train?"

"Yeah, why not?" She looked a bit more enthusiastic this time to talk then the ride on the previous train. It seems that they had a good time talking waiting for their ride to come. The R train finally appeared after about 10 minutes of waiting and they got on ready to go to 42nd st.

"You going to 42nd also SonSon?" asked Peter.

"Yeah, it's the only way I'll be able to get closer to the C train so I can get home. It's so easy traveling in the city."

Seeing that the ride didn't take too long, they both got off and the train and started walking up the stairs until they saw something completely unexpected happening. There was a middle-aged woman that was being threatened by two medium-sized males ready to rob her.

The two males could be described as scruffy looking and intimidating due to their size. One was wearing a black leather jacket with work boots and by the way he was harassing the woman, he looked like the leader of the two. The second male was of the same build as his cohort, wearing a red hooded sweater and a black bandanna on his forehead, he was following the orders of the first thief even though he looked like he could put in some work of his own.

The woman look completely terrified of the situation, who wouldn't be? She was about to get robbed and possibly lose her life all because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What could she do? Hope for somebody to just help her when her life was in danger, sometimes people could care less.

As she stayed trembling near a wall, one of the men approached her and started pulling on her bag ready to just take off with whatever might be deemed as valuable.

"Hey lady, get the fuck off the bag!" one of the thieves said with much authority trying to instill fear into his victim.

The woman clung to her bag as much as possible, she figured if she was going to die, she would not go down without a fight. "Leave me alone you fucking asshole! You'd have to pry it from my cold dead hands before I give anything to you!"

"Yo Jimmy, let's just finish her off! We don't need her alive because she'll just snitch on us and that's gonna be a problem." The bandanna-wearing thief suggested to his partner.

Thinking that it was the only way out, the leader of the two started smiling maliciously and then took out a huge switchblade out from the inside of his jacket. He wanted to get rid of her knowing that people weren't really paying attention to the scene. "Yeah, you're right. Might as well off this bitch before the pigs find out about this." With a lick of his lips, he and his partner started walking towards the woman ready to finish their job.

The woman looked completely soulless as she backed up knowing that her life was going to end right there without a doubt. Tears left her eyes because so many emotions overwhelmed her at the moment that she had no idea on what to really do, 'Oh my god, these men are going to kill me.. What do I do? Somebody help, please anybody...'

As Peter and SonSon saw the situation, they looked in shock at what was happening and that nobody was really paying attention to the scene beforehand. They thought that the duo was pretty brave to rob somebody in public without worrying much for consequences. This was making Peter getting slowly angry as he was getting ready to help the woman to prevent any casualties or ruining the time he was having with SonSon.

As he was getting ready to subconsciously change into his alter ego by taking his shirt, a small hand stopped him.

"SonSon, what are you doing?! Those assholes are going to kill that woman and-" His anger was taking over as he was going to stop them and SonSon just prevented him from doing so.

Contrary to what just happened, SonSon knew exactly why she stopped him, "Peter, trust me. I know you want to do good but do you want everybody here to know that you're secretly Spider-Man?" she said in a low voice.

"But that has nothing to do with anything and I'm going to help her out!" He screamed with fury in his voice not caring about the moment.

"Peter!" She got his attention after screaming his name out hoping to get some sense into him instead of instinct taking over. "Remember, I have powers too. I'm not gonna let you throw your life away for this. I know you want to help but let me take care of it. I could care less of who sees me since my face is in the open anyway so just let me take care of it. Please Peter."

Peter had no choice because he knew she was right about his identity being exposed but he just didn't want to see a death that could be prevented. His only choice was to leave it to SonSon and hope everything would be ok.

"Ok SonSon, I'm leaving it up to you but hurry up because my patience is running thin and that woman might die anytime in the next few seconds."

SonSon nodded her head and told Peter to hold her bag as she walked up to the scene taking place.

Both miscreants were was near the woman; the leader using his knife to make marks on the woman's skin while also using it to undress her at the same time, the man with the bandanna ready to hold her down in case she decided to put up a fight.

"It was nice knowing you lady but it's time for you to die. Nothing personal though." As he pulled his hand back ready to impale the woman with the sharp object, he felt a force pull his hand back and it left him wondering what exactly was gripping his hand.

"Hey, what the fuck? Who's the wise son of a bitch who's holding onto my hand?" As he turned around, he saw the force that was holding his hand. SonSon was gripping his hand and had a deadpanned face showing that she was not the one to be fucked with right now.

"Hey, what are you doing to that woman, coward? You're telling me that you can't go out and make your own money so you had to resort to stealing from other people? People like you is the reason why mankind needs help."

The second robber turned around also and was looking at SonSon ready to take her down.

"Hey, let go of him you bitch!" As soon as he was within striking range, SonSon immediately punched him in his face which immediately knocked him out.

"It seems your friend is going to be asleep for some time. How about I put you in the land of dreams also?" She looked at the leader with much ferocity in her eye which made him tremble a bit. He also realized he had a free hand so he went to punch her only to have her parry it and cause the grip on his hand with the switchblade to tighten up.

"Hey, why don't you just let us go free? I promise you we won't ever do this again." The leader begged seeing that he had no choice against the strong monkey woman.

SonSon still had the deadpan expression on her face while he was begging her to let him go.

"Really, you want me to let you go? Were you willing to let that woman go while you were getting ready to rob her and even take her life? People like you is what's wrong with the world."

As he was done talking, she punched him in his gut, and elbowed him in his face then punched him out cold. Seeing that both the thieves were incapacitated, she saw the bag on the floor and gave it back to the woman who was shocked to see what just happened.

"Miss, I believe this belongs to you." She then handed the bag over to the woman who then took it slowly from her hand. She was still trembling from the incident.

"Um, thank you young lady. My life was literally flashing before my eyes." The woman was crying tears of joy thankful that somebody was there to help her at least.

SonSon gave a small smile, "Eh, it's no problem. Assholes like that are easy to take down seeing as they're just average people. Just call the police and they'll be here in a while." She looked down on the two unconscious thieves, "Don't worry, they'll be knocked out for some time. Well, take it easy miss."

With some small brushing of her body, she walked back to Peter who was still surprised at what just happened. He knew she was powerful but this was ridiculous, she didn't even flinch once. As she saw Peter, he gave her bag back to her and started walking to their trains.

"Wow, I know you're strong but this is even crazy for me to swallow."

She had to laugh at his statement. "Remember Peter, I know kung-fu and various other martial arts. You should know this by now."

"Yeah, I do. It's still surprising to see though. Remind me to never ever get in a fight with you." He scratched his head while chuckling a bit.

"Don't worry. Even if you did, you should be able to put up a challenge seeing as you have powers also, eh Spider-Man?"

"Hey, hey, don't say that out loud! People might get the wrong idea if they hear you saying that."

SonSon laughed at the idea of people figuring out average Peter Parker was Spider-Man. It would cause a lot of catastrophe if that was revealed to the public. She didn't care if people figured out she was a monkey girl seeing as the world did know who her grandfather was from olden times, she just wasn't as crazy to show them off as he did nor was she as destructive.

When they finally reached the C train, SonSon was about to hug Peter as it was time for them to go their separate ways for the night until he stopped her.

"Hey, how about I take the train and walk you to your house? I know you're pretty powerful and all but I want to walk you since you're a lady. So how about it?"

Blushing was SonSon's only reaction to what he just said but she had to shake out of it to get her mind straight.

"Peter, as much as that would be nice, I feel like you should-"

He put a finger on her lips to stop her from finishing her sentence and moved even closer to her.

"But I want to, it's of my own choice."

She was thinking of an excuse to derail his idea until one just came to her head.

"Ok, let's say you do walk me to my apartment. It's gonna take longer for you to get home and don't you have work tomorrow in the morning?"

Peter thought about it for a second and she was right. But he was Peter Parker, gifted intellectual and tardy worker, he really didn't care about being early even if he knew his boss was going to chew him out later but all he wanted at the moment was to be with SonSon.

"That may be true but I'd rather take my chances and just be with you. Only if you want to though, I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do."

Another blush appeared, she figured if he was so adamant about walking her to her apartment, why not let him? "Ok, ok. Because you really care so much to do that, I'll let you travel with me to my apartment. This is only a one-time thing, got it?"

Somewhere in his mind, Peter was doing back-flips ecstatic that she was letting him escort her to her home. He figured this would probably further their friendship a bit more, he still remembered that he had to take his time in the process.

"Thanks for letting me do this SonSon, you won't regret it. I knew you couldn't resist my security for long." He was sounding like he won something really great.

"Don't flatter yourself Parker, you're only escorting me to my home and that's it. Now if you don't mind, we have a train to catch."

As they walked to the C train and waited for one to come, they continued talking about their days and Peter definitely asked about her martial arts knowledge and how she got so good at them. When their train came, they still talked until they reached 81st street and walked about two blocks until they reached SonSon's home. Seeing as the escorting was done, they stayed in front of her door in silence until SonSon spoke up.

"Well, thanks for escorting me Peter. I can actually say that I don't really regret it gave us the chance to catch up on the ten years that we didn't see each other, so you have my thanks for that."

"Yeah, I guess it did and I definitely have no regrets being your escort. It was pretty fun."

"Well, I guess I should say good night to you and meet up with you next time. Good night Peter."

Just as she was about to go to inside, Peter gently grabbed her arm and yelled "Wait!" not caring who he woke up. SonSon stopped her movement and turned her head around surprised at his actions just now.

"Sorry, I yelled that out but I want to know if you wanted to hang out again some other time?" He asked this with as much seriousness and bravery he could conjure up at the moment.

SonSon was really surprised at his forwardness, it was actually something to be admired. Seeing that he expressed his enjoyment of hanging out with her, a quick idea lit up in her head.

"Ok, how about you come to my apartment on Saturday since I have the weekend off. Me and the girls are gonna throw a house blessing seeing that we haven't been in the city for too long. We can hang out there and enjoy ourselves while we just chill out for a bit. There'll be food there also so you definitely wouldn't want to miss that. So how about it Mr. Parker?"

This was a good thing seeing that she trusted him enough to go inside her house and see what the place looked like. He did always have some sort of liking for these houses ever since he met Felicia Hardy aka The Black Cat with her extravagant penthouse.

"Thanks, that would be awesome and I really liked hanging out with you tonight SonSon. I got to know a little bit more about than what I did know. Well, good night and I'll see you Saturday."

"I'll be sure to see you then and I have a little departure gift for you." She leaned up to his face due to their difference in height and gave him a kiss on the cheeks. A blush appeared on his face not expecting that at all.

Speechless for the time being, he brought himself to reality after the kiss. Seeing that they were simply friends, he decided not to push the envelope and just accept it. He did have to ask though, "Wow, really wasn't expecting that but what made you do that? Not saying that I didn't like it but I would like to know."

"Well, you are a special friend to me and that was for escorting me home. It's only a gift as a friend so don't expect anything more, ok?" She winked at him seeing his confusion, she liked playing around with him every now and then.

"Well, good night Peter," she walked up to him and hugged him which he returned, "So are you going to remember Saturday?"

"Of course I will, I wouldn't miss it for anything. Luckily, I don't do much weekend shifts and the upcoming one just happens to be one of them. Well, good night SonSon, see you around."

"Same here, good night." And with that she walked into the front door of her building and went to her apartment.

Peter walked to the train station and decided to be a bit more inconspicuous. Sure, he could have swung his way home but after tonight's events, he definitely didn't mind taking the normal way home.

As he took a nap on the way home, he thought about Saturday, "Yeah, I believe everything will work out in its own way. Thanks SonSon."


	4. Nocturnal gathering of heroes

**Chapter 4**

"10 minutes to 7:00, time to get ready."

It was finally the day of the girls' house blessing. Peter was really excited since he could finally see what the interior of the apartment was like but more happy to just have some quality time with his female simian friend.

As he was getting ready, he checked in his closet to find a decent set of clothes to wear to the event. Needless to say, he found it a bit challenging since he didn't wear suits often except for special occasions. 'Aw man, it's hard to find something to wear.' He looked through his closet until he found a black blazer that was hanged up in the near-end of his closet and decided that he could wear that; it was simple yet exuded dignity.

"Alright, I'll wear this, it's pretty simple and it doesn't make me look like I'm going to an interview."

He put the blazer on his bed, he also decided to wear a navy blue dress shirt, some khakis and a pair of boat shoes, simple yet suave. After preparing his ensemble, he went to the shower and cleaned himself off seeing that he had to be clean for the event.

Once done with the shower, he took his clothes to his ironing board and started taking out all the kinks in his shirt and pants. Once he was done, he got dressed and made sure to grab any necessities that was needed such as his keys, wallet, and cellphone.

Figuring that he was a guest in their home, he decided to go to the nearest liquor store and purchase some wine seeing that it was a sort of formal event for him.

After the purchase of the wine, he went to the train station but before he entered he took out his phone and called SonSon's cellphone.

*Ring, ring*

He waited for more rings.

*Ring, ring.*

"Hello?" A voice finally appeared on the phone.

"Hey SonSon, it's me Peter."

"Oh hey, what's up Spidey?" she smirked on the other side of the line after calling him that.

He rolled his eyes at that. "That's real funny. Anyways, I'm on my way to the blessing. I also bought some stuff as a present seeing that it would only be polite if I did so."

"Oh, that's so sweet of you. Just to let you know, we also have a few visitors here besides you. I'm sure you'll remember some of them from our time in the Abyss wars, they're actually pretty excited to see you when you get here so hurry that ass up!"

"Whoa, whoa. You're gonna have to give me some time to get there unless you want me to swing over there and I don't really need that much attention at this moment. Give me some time."

What he did say was true because after the Rhino incident, there wasn't much trouble in the city, which he was thankful for, it did give him some free time that he wasn't really used to but took advantage of it.

"Well, I'll see you when you get here and hopefully you don't get into any trouble on the way, I would hate to have to save you again."

He responded with another roll of the eyes, "Funny. Trust me, that won't be happening again. Seeing that I'm holding us both up, I'm gonna go to the train and see you guys when I get there."

"Alright, we'll see you when you get here. Bye Peter."

"Bye SonSon." After the short phone conversation, Peter walked to the train station and made his way towards waiting for the train. Seeing that he had a chance to finally see what the high-scale apartment look like, he was pretty excited. Hey, if he was lucky, he could afford one of those apartments one day for himself and be the one throwing a house blessing.

After the train ride, he finally reached the front of the apartment complex where SonSon's apartment was. He then thought of the kiss that she gave him on Tuesday night and he started smiling and even blushed for a bit at the gesture but it was just a friendly kiss, well, that's what he wanted to convince himself of seeing that she did state she didn't pursue romantic relationships at all.

Now looking through the directory, he looked for the apartment SonSon told him to ring so she could call him up. "If I'm correct, she said apartment 4-E," and with that, he proceeded to ring the electronic bell labeled '4-E' and immediately got a response.

"Hello, who is it?" a female voice asked. It was completely different from SonSon's voice, it sounded older and...alluring.

"Um, it's Peter Parker. I heard there was a house blessing tonight and I wanted to make sure I got the right apartment number."

"Peter? Oh wow, you sound so different from the last time I saw you, come on up!" A buzz was heard and the electronic lock of the door immediately unlatched in which he opened the door and was amazed by the lobby of the complex. It had greenery and gothic sculpture of pillars that look so amazing, he even saw a few paintings that made him awe in amazement.

'Wow, this is only the lobby and it looks so beautiful. I wonder what the apartment looks like.'

He walked upstairs to the fourth floor and scanned around for the door that said '4-E' until he looked to his left and saw that the door was on the right side of the left wing of the floor. As soon as he approached, he heard a conglomerate of voices and wondered who else was there.

With a simple knock on the door, he waited for somebody to answer the door. Waiting for a few seconds, he heard some steps increasing in volume, then the sound of some locks being unlatched until he saw a familiar feminine figure standing right in front of him. His jaw immediately dropped seeing who it was.

The woman who opened the door was the succubus queen Morrigan Aensland. Her figure was really awe-inspiring with such a small red dress that put her personal assets on display for all to see. She then moved her mouth to his earlobe biting it then whispering into his ear.

"Hello Peter, it's been some time since we've ran into each other. Wouldn't you say five years to be exact?" Her voice sounded so hypnotic and alluring that he blushed and his body stayed frozen for an indefinite amount of time.

"Uh, hey Morrigan. Yeah, it has been some time since we last saw each other. Um- wow is all I can say." She loved the effect she had on him, it was so entertaining to see someone like Peter Parker so enthralled with her looks.

"Mr. Parker, I'm sure you're not just going to stand there all this time when we have such a good gathering here of old friends. Please step inside." After she stepped out of the way, he took a step inside and his eyes widened at all the people inside the apartment.

There were so many old friends here for a home blessing that he smiled seeing all of the familiar faces that he didn't see for a long time.

On the males' side, he saw Ryu, Ken Masters, Dan, Bobby Drake (Iceman), Remy LeBeau (Gambit), Guile, Charlie, Logan, Strider Hiryu (Surprisingly, he didn't mind house parties), Bruce Banner (Hulk), Hayato Kanzaki, and Jin Saotome.

Looking at the females' side, he spotted SonSon of course, Morrigan, Chun-Li, Felicia, Sakura, Tron Bonne, Elizabeth Braddock (Psylocke), Ororo Munroe (Storm), Jill Valentine, Rogue, Ruby Heart, Marrow, Cammy, there was also a jiang shi (Chinese hopping ghost) named Hsien-Ko who was a friend of Felicia and Morrigan.

Seeing that Peter stepped in, a good amount of people looked towards his direction and they immediately walked up to him and gathered him in a big group hug seeing that they didn't hear or see him for such a long time.

"Peter!" Everybody screamed. It was nice to see him again after all this time. Bobby, Ryu, Ken, Jin, Felicia, Jill, Elizabeth and Ororo all gathered around him gave him the biggest hug. It seems that they all missed him and wanted to catch up with him since the wars ended.

"Hey Petey Pete, what's up man? It's been forever." Bobby asked.

"Yeah man, you don't stay in contact with us like that." Ken said with a grin.

"Yes, even Charles was wondering if you was ever going to visit the manor. He really wanted to thank you for helping us with the defeat of Juggernaut and Doctor Doom" Ororo said while hugging him.

To say he was overwhelmed was a bit of a understatement. He was really excited to see his friends from back then and he was a bit happy that they were still as friendly as they were when they first met and when they fought together. He was really happy to know different people.

"Aw man guys and ladies. I've just been so busy with the Bugle and all this Spider-Man business that I've been so preoccupied with staying in contact. No offense guys."

"None taken." They responded.

As they were still talking, a voice cleared its throat hoping to get some attention from the group which it did. The owner of the voice looked at Peter with a lot of disdain and annoyance that it was like she was glaring holes into his body. The person pushed herself into the group and started jabbing Peter with her index finger moving his body until it hit the wall. To say she was furious was not too far from the stretch.

"So I see you can't contact anybody for six years, huh?" She said with anger in her voice.

Peter was a bit sheepish trying to respond but he felt like the woman was interrogating him and even held his hands in a defensive state trying to calm her down, "Chun-Li, I'm really, really sorry. Can you please forgive me? I brought wine in case that makes up for it."

"Forgive you?! What happened to being good friends, huh? Did you forget about that while you was with your girlfriend too? Peter, sometimes I just can't understand you. I barely got an email from you and I tried a lot to find you!" Her emotions were on high level but she couldn't help herself. She really missed Peter and his company, she felt that she was able to relate to him seeing that they lost their loved ones tragically and they tried to deliver justice on to the evils of the world.

With a sigh, he hugged her again and apologized again, "I'm really sorry Chun, I really did try to contact you, believe it or not. I've just been so damn busy with being Spider-Man, caring for Aunt May and a whole bunch of crazy bullshit that even I'm confused if I have a social life now. Is there anything I can do get you to forgive me?"

She didn't cry but she wasn't as angry as she was before. After getting off him, she kicked him in his shins seeing that it calmed her down for a bit, it was her own way of venting. Everybody laughed at this remembering that they argued a lot on Ruby's ship.

"I could do a lot worse than that but you're still my friend so I won't; one way you can forgive me is either kissing my feet or by dancing with me, pick one." She was really serious about this.

Peter smiled after rubbing his shins seeing that his friend was still the same after all these years.

"Well, I really don't do feet, I'm not that kinky," Bobby, Jin, Ryu and Ken laughed at the innuendo joke while Chun-Li face-palmed her forehead wondered how she made a friend like this, "but I can dance with you for a bit if that will make you happy."

Finally realizing that she calmed down, she took in his words and jabbed her finger again against his chest holding him to his promise.

"You better keep your promise or I'll show you why they call me the 'The Strongest Woman in the World' and I don't want to mess up my apartment tonight. Enjoy the house blessing." She then walked away until the appointed dance time.

He smiled at her straightforwardness, he did like that about Chun-Li. He knew that she was one person to be reckoned with and to not piss off. He did take a good look at her, she got more beautiful than he last saw her wearing such a blue cheongsam. After that episode, he took a good look at the apartment and it was beautiful he thought; there were so many paintings hanged against the wall, vibrant flowers, expensive furniture, and so many other things. He looked at the living room and it was a nice quaint place that was occupied by the time being.

He looked around for SonSon, he did like that he saw his old friends but he didn't forget the main reason he came here. He looked around finally finding her in near a table in the kitchen talking to Logan and Ruby sitting down. Seeing that she was talking to other people, he decided to pull off a little prank.

Now approaching behind here, he saw Logan and Ruby take a brief moment to look and motioned a 'shh' moment to both of them which they surprisingly complied with.

As she was still talking oblivious to what was happening, the chestnut-haired man sneaked up behind her and put his hands on her ears and eyes.

"Guess who?"

"Hmm, is it Flash Thompson?" she said with a smirk.

"Wow, I'm offended that you just said that. If it isn't the the claw man and the woman who runs a mysterious ship, how are you guys doing?" He took his hands off and they started laughing at his failed attempt of a joke.

"What's up youngin'? You stayin' out of trouble in these parts?" Logan asked while guzzling down a cup of brandy.

"Eh, I'm not doing so badly this time. Less maniacs are appearing which leaves me some time to get a pedicure or something."

"I'm flattered you call me a mysterious woman, Monsieur Parker and a pedicure, huh? I didn't think you'd had it in you to do an act that is so feminized in society, you've gained my respect." said the eye-patched captain.

"Pedicures? Wouldn't be caught dead in one of those joints, not really my style."

"That's because you're a feral beast by nature. I think the women would run off if they saw you in the first place, n'est pas?" said Ruby.

"But you like this feral beast, don't you?" Logan said with his canines showing.

Peter and SonSon looked at each other while the two were going at it, but it was their own form of communication with each other so they didn't make it a big deal. They decided to leave especially as they started moving closer to each other and find a place for their own. He took a good look at her; her hair was braided, she was wearing a white button-up long sleeve, slacks and some heels, he took a mental note of tonight and ingrained it into his memory.

A terrace was located near Morrigan's bedroom and they decided to go over there and have some alone time together. The night was so beautiful seeing that the spring has started and got a good view of the beauty that was Central Park.

"Well, those two seem to be having fun, wouldn't you say?" said Peter.

"Yeah, I would assume so. So how are you enjoying yourself tonight? What do you think of the apartment?" replied SonSon.

"It's amazing but I didn't think you guys would be living so nice like this. You have an amazing view of the area and it's just...wow. Tonight's been pretty decent so far with the exception of Chun-Li interrogating me and kicking my shins pretty hard but besides that, everything's been pretty fine tonight."

"Oh yeah, I didn't exactly see but she was really mad at you for not contacting her. When I told her I invited you, she started thinking of how to beat your ass or something like that. Trust me, she was furious."

"But why so mad though?"

"She really missed you, you know? Because you guys have a shared feeling of personal loss, she felt like you could relate to her. I mean she's going out with Ryu but she would like one of her best friends back, you know?"

This caught him off guard, "She's going out with Ryu? Wow, I've really been out of it for a while."

"Eh, don't worry too much. She'll learn to forgive you in due time."

"Aw man, first M.J., Gwen, now one of my friends are mad at me. My relationship with women could really take a crash course."

"As I said before, don't worry too much. If you worry about it too much, you'll start growing gray hairs and I would find it odd that a man in his early thirties would start growing old." She giggled at what she said.

"Being Spider-Man, which would either decrease or increase it depending on the situation at the time being."

They both laughed at his sentence and took a good look towards the sky. It was so ethereal at the moment, it's like the night had just imploded and just gave birth to little specks of light plastered throughout the sky.

"We have a lot of people here tonight, huh?" asked Peter.

"Yeah, a lot of guests. It's good to have a reunion seeing that we have our own independent lives and we're just so busy."

Looking at her, they stayed in complete silence taking in the miasma of the nocturnal atmosphere until Peter broke the silence.

"I'm really glad you invited me here tonight, just having you here with me makes me happy enough."

Hearing this, she blushed. It wasn't like her to get comments like that, "Oh, thanks Peter. I'm glad you came here today also and it's always nice having some good friends here also."

The atmosphere was perfect for them, he wanted to see if they could get together again. He used a lot of courage to ask her for another opportunity to get like this again.

"Hey SonSon?"

She looked at him as he looked like he was about to ask her a question, "Yes?"

It was now or never, "I was wondering if you wanted to go out or s-" As soon as he was ready to ask her his question, Cammy and Ryu appeared out of nowhere at the entrance of the terrace trying to get Peter's attention.

"Peter?" asked Cammy.

With a sigh, he turned around and looked at the British femme fatale wondering what she could have wanted.

"Yes Cammy?"

"Chun-Li's looking around for you. She said it's time for you to owe her that dance or something of that matter?"

"Dance?" SonSon asked with a bit of confusion.

"Long story, I'll explain later though. Wait a minute! Ryu, you're her boyfriend, why don't you dance with her?!"

Ryu scratched his head while answering the question, "Well...she requested that **you **dance withher and she's a bit tipsy at the moment. I highly doubt we need a drunk Chun-Li going crazy tonight."

Shaking his head at the situation, he decided to join the Chinese Interpol agent before she started going ballistic wondering where he was.

"I see what you mean. Alright, let's do this. Where is she anyway?"

"She's right there in the living room sitting down most likely drinking some wine." said Cammy.

"Well, I'll talk to you later SonSon. Let me take care of this." Peter said and he waved her goodbye while walking towards the living room with Ryu following.

"Later," She looked a bit sad seeing him leave but what could she do?

Unbeknownst to both of them, Cammy caught both of them giving certain looks to the other and was able to deduce what was going on between them. She stepped onto the terrace and took a look at the night sky.

"Hmm, you like him, don't you?" Cammy said all of a sudden.

How she came to that was beyond her comprehension but she decided to play it off hoping to derail the topic. "What made you come to that decision?"

Seeing that she was going to avoid the topic, she pushed the envelope hoping to get her to open up, "I see the way you look at him and the way you two interact. You're more careful around him than any of the other guys around. Why don't you just confess to him? It's obvious you both like each other."

"As I said before, I don't like him like that."

"Well, I won't force you to answer anything. All I'm saying is just take a chance and be honest with yourself. It's up to you to determine what you want in life. Now if you need me, I'll be getting some wine, ta-ta deary." And with those words, she left the terrace leaving SonSon to think for a bit.

Peter was currently dancing with Chun-Li. It was pretty much unavoidable seeing that he did promise her one dance to make up for lost time. Dancing to classical music wasn't his idea but she was adamant having a dance whether it be a waltz, classical, or anything, she was determined.

Most of the guests' eyes were on them, they started clapping seeing that Spider-Man could do more with his feet than just crawl up walls. It was radiating a bit of elegance as if they were in a ballroom.

"This is nice, isn't it Peter?" asked Chun-Li.

Hearing her, he did smile a bit seeing that she wasn't as inebriated and angry as before, "Yeah, I suppose it is. I only hope Ryu doesn't freak out with me dancing with his girlfriend; I heard about that dark power in him."

"Don't worry. Ryu understands and he's ok with it. Just keep dancing."

And with that, they continued dancing.

After sitting on the terrace for some time, SonSon decided to go back inside seeing that she wanted some company to just avail her thoughts. Cammy's words washed over her like a sailor in a violent storm but she tried her best not to think so much about it. Now walking closer to the living room, she saw a good amount of people gathered around and got closer. What she saw definitely caught her off guard; dancing right now was Peter and Chun-Li on the floor and it was a bit amusing seeing Peter dance to her, probably because he wasn't keen on dancing like that. One thing was a bit troubling though, she felt her heart start to feel heavy under some supernatural force that was unknown to her. She didn't know why, all she felt was that something was wrong.

When the dance finally finished, everybody gave both participants a round of applause. Both Peter and Chun-Li gave a bow to the guests, glad that they were able to put on a performance. They looked at each other and gave each other a smile.

"Well, that went a bit better than expected." said Peter.

"It sure did. You never told me you knew how to dance to classical music. What else are you hiding from me Mr. Spider-Man?"

"I normally don't dance since it's not my thing but having an aunt who's very lonely at times and going to ballrooms with MJ and Felicia Hardy, you learn to pick up a few things. So are we okay?"

Chun-Li thought about his question and nodded her head, "Yep, we're ok but contact me a bit more. Yeah, I'll be out with Ryu since we're together but it would be nice to talk to you from time to time."

"Alright, I got you. I really don't want a kick in my shins again, now if you'll excuse me, I have somebody I need to talk to." And with that he left with Chun-Li waving goodbye.

Going around the apartment, he was looking for SonSon until...

"Yo Peter!" Out of nowhere came Jin.

His eyes widened at the energetic mecha operator coming out of nowhere. "Oh, hey Jin, what's up?"

"Come over here, we want you to tell us what you've been up to all these years. It's not every day you get a reunion like this so come on!"

"Well, it is nice to see you guys but..." Peter tried to explain.

"Come on man! Time to catch up with the rest of your buddies!" Jin started pushing Peter towards the far end of the living room ignoring his requests to let him go. He figured Jin was right, so he met up with Jill, Hayato, Ken, Ryu, Ororo, and Psylocke.

"Can I find somebody first?" Peter asked with a bit of impatience.

"Alright, alright. But just come back here, ok?" Jin said.

"I'll try my best." And with that, he was off.

Moving past everyone, he went to the terrace hoping to find SonSon only to find out she was nowhere to be found.

"Huh? I was sure I told her I'd be back after that dance." Looking confused, he went back inside and pondered about where she could possibly be. After searching the large apartment, he figured that she would be in the one place that he knows anybody would be if they had it, the bedroom.

Walking in the hallway, he found the three bedrooms and he saw that their doors held certain objects plastered on the front to indicate on which room belonged to who. Chinese characters for Chun-Li's oriental heritage, bats for Morrigan's seeing that they were her primary weapons and a decal of peaches and bananas that was SonSon's room. Seeing that one made Peter chuckle for a bit.

"It's just like her to put up something like this."

Now standing in front of the door, he saw a little crack giving him some view of the bedroom. Not trying to be rude since he was a guest, he knocked on the door a bit gently hoping to get some permission to come in.

"Hello? SonSon, are you inside there? It's me Peter."

Hearing her name being called, SonSon got up from laying down on her bed and spoke up for Peter to come in. She was a bit surprised he came looking for her since there were many others to talk to in the front.

"Um, yeah. You can come in."

With the confirmation to come in, he opened the door to see SonSon sitting down on the edge of her bed with her shoes off. The moonlight coming from her window made her look prettier then when they were talking outside.

"Hey, I've been looking for you, I wouldn't have expected you to be here."

"Hehe, sorry about that. I was just having some time to myself just thinking about everything." She said this with a bittersweet smile while looking up towards him.

One thing really caught Peter off though, her eyes were a bit red and puffy. It was like she was...crying. This really concerned him because he didn't like seeing people he cared for cry, especially not SonSon so he did his best to try to figure out what was going on.

"SonSon, have you been crying?"

She looked at him and tried to play it off even though the evidence was already there, "What?! No, I haven't been crying. I'm the great monkey warrior! I don't cry." She said with as much bravery and confidence she could muster up.

"SonSon, be honest with me. Have you been crying?"

Knowing that she was defeated, she put her head down and replied, "...yes."

"Why though? There shouldn't be anything to cry at, you should be enjoying yourself outside seeing that you are one of the hosts." He said trying to cheer her up. He went back to the state of her eyes trying to deduce the reason of why she had been crying.

"But why were you crying though?"

With a sigh and now looking at the floor again, she replied, "I was thinking about my family back home in my village. It's just I've never really been by myself before without somebody from my village accompanying me to wherever I went. Call it me being homesick."

Scooting closer to her on the bed, he put an arm around her hoping to get her spirits up. She smiled a bit which also gained a smile from him.

"SonSon, I know how much it is to miss family. I know from experience way too well; I lost my Uncle Ben to a mugger, my parents died in an accident that I don't know too much about and my only family is my Aunt May. So believe me, I know what it means to miss family. The thing is that you don't let those feelings linger too much or they'll eat away from you in the inside. Huh, I'm sounding like a modern day Oscar Wilde."

Hearing this made her happy a bit but she was still reminiscing in the thoughts of her family, he knew by looking at her eyes. Seeing that she was still down, an idea lit itself in his head.

He hands started creeping around her all of a sudden and it caught her off guard. Her eyes widened at what he was doing. Was he...tickling her?

She started laughing uncontrollably when she was now getting tickled by Peter. Her body was squirming around the bed much like a catfish just caught by the finest fisherman in the South.

"Peter! Hahahaha, stop! My fur causes me to be too ticklish!" She said hoping to get the photojournalist off of her.

"Nope! Not until you start cheering up and stop being such a sad case!"

"Hahahahahaha! Ok, ok, I'll stop being so sad! Just stop tickling me, it's too much for me!"

He let go of her hoping she kept to her word. She was still laughing a bit after that session but she was appreciative that her friend came to cheer her up. Instead of tears of sadness, they were replaced by tears of happiness from all the tickling she just went through. She did start to feel a bit better though so there was one good thing that came out of it.

"That wasn't fair, you know." She said with a pout while blushing.

"Hey, but you feel better, right?"

With her pout now turning into a small smile, she did feel a little better. "Hmmph, I guess you're right about that. A tickle is the last thing I would've expected out of you but I do feel better."

Seeing that they were a bit closer than comfort, they backed away from each other a bit trying not to invade each other's personal space.

Trying to move from the supposed awkward moment, Peter looked at SonSon's room looking at all the things laying in the room: plants, closet full of feminine clothes, shoes, her martial arts weapons, laptop, T.V., and of course the bed. It emitted a calm atmosphere that felt so secure and cozy yet possessed a sort of character fitting for the owner of the room.

"I like your room, it's real cozy and it just has the feeling I can't put my finger on."

She chuckled a bit nervously since this was the first time she ever had a guest visit her room, much less a male. All in all, she did feel flattered that somebody liked her room.

"Well, thank you. But it's just a basic room you know."

"That may be true but it reflects the way you are as a person; your clothes which represents your femininity, your staff for martial arts, and your plants which represents your connection with nature among other things. So be happy for the effort you put in decorating your room." He said this with a lot of reassurance and confidence that she had no choice but to smile.

"I guess you're right. My room is pretty cool if I do say so myself." She felt more cheerful than earlier and her attitude changed feeling more energetic.

Now that she was more active than before, she felt like she there were some questions that needed to be answered.

"So... Why were you dancing with Chun-Li earlier? You do know she's going out with Ryu, right?"

Caught left field from the question, Peter felt nervous, he had no idea why though. He was just doing a favor for a friend if you can even call it a favor by the way that it happened.

"Well, Chun-Li said I should owe her for the past five years that we didn't see each other and that it was either kiss her feet or dance with her. I felt safer with the second choice. I could see it now, 'Spider-Man, squashed to death by Chinese woman with legs of death!' I bet J.J. would have a field day if that happened."

SonSon started laughing after hearing that, it was just too funny to her. "Are you serious? Aw man, Chun-Li is really something, when we moved here and I told her I ran into you that day, she looked like she was gonna scour the city for you just to find you. She was really pissed at you for not contacting her for the past five years."

Putting a hand to his forehead, he wanted to not dwell on that for too long, "Don't remind me. Let's change the subject please if we can."

"Alright, alright. You've suffered enough for one day Mr. He-who-does-the-waltz." Hearing the explanation behind that moment, she felt a bit relieved within her heart. Wait a minute, why was her heart feeling relief? She was confused by the unfamiliar sensation but focused on the matter at hand of them both on the bedroom.

"So what should we talk about?" asked SonSon.

"Well, we can-"

"Yo, Pete! Where are you man?!" Peter was interrupted by an all too familiar voice that was screaming throughout the hallway. He forgot that he was supposed to meet up with the others so they can catch up. Peter Parker was intelligent but he wasn't exactly the best model for punctuality.

"Why does that sound like Jin?" SonSon asked with some confusion.

"I was supposed to gather with some of the guys and girls so we can catch up on old times," He looked at his watch and realized 10 minutes already went by without him even noticing, "I kind of got distracted talking to you but I figured it was worth it seeing as it was you I was talking to."

A cherry-colored blush appeared on her face hearing that coming from him, "Oh Mr. Parker, you're such a charmer."

"I know. I mean who could resist this shining smile, brains, and of course who could hate your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man besides Jameson and a few villians? Ok, well they don't count."

Now laughing at their conversation, they decided to move from the bedroom to join some of the guests. Now coming out of the bedroom, they saw Jin whose eyes had widened seeing the two individuals coming out of all places, a bedroom. Too say his initial reaction was a "What just happened?" was nothing too out of the ordinary.

"Um, did I interrupt something?" The mecha operator asked with a hint of awkwardness.

They immediately caught on to what he was thinking and raised both of their hands in a defensive state hoping that he would take their answer.

"No, no way! We was just talking and that's it, yeah, just talking." SonSon said really quickly.

"Yeah, we were just having a good conversation. We did not do anything- *sighs*, you don't believe us, do you?" said Peter.

"Well, it's kind of hard to believe you seeing as you just came out of a bedroom with smiles plastered on your face."

"Trust me Jin, we didn't do anything and don't you tell anybody about this or I'll swing you into oblivion." Peter commanded.

"Ok, ok, I won't tell anybody. Besides, what two people do in the bedroom is none of my business and I'm gonna respect that. Now that that's done and whatever, can we go back to the living room, there are people who have been waiting on your ass for quite some time."

"Alright, I'm coming. SonSon, you wanna join us? I'm sure it's better than sitting in your bedroom all by yourself."

Seeing that she could either drink her life away for the night and that he was right, she decided that she would talk to some of her old friends. "Yeah, I'll come. Better than being sad during the time that you guys are here."

"Ok! Now let's move the couple over to the living room." said Jin while pushing both of them.

"We are not a couple!" Was the response that both SonSon and Peter gave.

They took a slight look at each other and blushed, then looked away hoping not to give Jin any more ammunition to use against them. Luckily, he wasn't really looking or the situation could have been worse. After finally bringing them over to the living room, they sat down and greeted all their old friends which was reciprocated.

"Well, well Mr. Parker. I understand you're not the host or owner of this home but don't you think it's a bit rude to just go somewhere without telling anybody?" asked Ororo.

"I lost track of time. It's been what, like 10-15 minutes I missed. Also, why does everybody keep calling me 'Mr. Parker' like I'm some corporate owner?" He directed this not only to Storm but also SonSon who just looked elsewhere whistling like she didn't hear him.

"Maybe you need a drink to calm you down, wouldn't you say?" She said looking at him then looked towards SonSon, "Hello SonSon, how have you been?"

"I've been doing fine Storm. Right now, I'm as happy as I can be. I'm working in a restaurant to help pay for this upscale apartment and everything else is pretty good. I do wish I was rich though, then I wouldn't have to worry about working so much and just eat my fruits all day while chilling in a tree in Central Park."

Noticing that Peter was gone, Ken asked "Hey guys, where's Pete?"

"What? I told him not to go anywhere again. I'm about to start fighting with his ass." Jin said.

Jill stepped out and saw him pouring wine in about four cups, "Oh, don't worry. He's just drinking a lot of wine like its water out of those glasses. Wow, he can really guzzle those down."

Everybody stepped out and tried to see what Jill was talking about and what they saw really surprised them, especially SonSon.

"Um, should he really be consuming those drinks like that? I understand he's Spider-Man and all but he might catch the later effects of doing that." Ryu inquired.

"Don't worry, he's good." Jin said with a grin.

"And exactly how do you know that?" Jill asked with curiosity.

"Well, one time during the war. Logan, Peter, Tony (Iron Man), Guile, and I had a drinking contest on the ship. Ruby has a lot of liquor, strange ones to put it at that. Anyways, we had a contest and we drank a **LOT. **Boy, was that a hell of a night. Tony was the first one to pass out, Guile tried his hardest saying stuff like he had to do it for America and all that other shit. Then it came down to Logan, Peter and I; Peter drank so much but he wasn't really feeling it too much but he was getting buzzed at the same time. Logan, do I really need to say much about that, that healing factor is bullshit but even that didn't prevent him from feeling it. I started seeing Blodia dancing like a ballerina after I had a lot. I gave up which left it to the Wolverine and Spider-Man, Peter drank so much that he was started swinging all over the place and Logan cursed his ass off like a sailor with bad breath and adamantium-plated claws even though that isn't really different from his regular personality. Fast forward about an hour later, of course Logan won but boy, did he feel it in the morning. Peter beat himself up for drinking so much and that's pretty much it." Everyone just gave him a look like he had told them of a heroic tale out of Camelot.

"It's amazing how much he can drink." said Hayato.

"He'd be perfect for a bar game in England. I'm confident he could out-drink some of those idiots there." said Betsy.

"As I said before, don't worry about him. He's good."

Watching him down a whole bottle of wine was an amazing show to the group and it was an amazing feat for him. If this was just regular Peter Parker at Midtown High, he'd probably pass out after two drinks. It seems that he surprised himself once more. After the drinks, he went back to the group to meet up with them. What he got was a bunch of looks that made him look like he was a deformed person.

"Uh, hey guys? What's with the strange looks? Did I say too many jokes again?"

Ken was the first one to speak, "Dude, I had no idea you could drink so much. You downed a bottle of wine like it was nothing, which was so freaking sweet! You gotta come to L.A. one day so we can have a night out in the town!"

"Even I'm surprised that the careful Peter Parker can do something so risky. I'm impressed." Jill said while drinking a glass herself.

"But Peter, are you sure you're ok?" asked Ryu.

"What? I'm perfectly fine, a bottle of wine won't do anything to me. Besides, my arachnid toxins will deal with all impurities inside me." He sat down on the couch and just exhaled.

All of a sudden, Logan appeared at the side from the group eyeing Peter."Kid, when you're done drinking all this fancy and prissy shit, come holler at me for a real challenge and I'll probably win again. Until then, bub." He then left the party to go home.

Of course everybody knew who he was talking about, they just got told the story.

"So you gonna do it, Pete?" asked an energetic Jin.

"No way, he has that healing factor which is ridiculously unfair, I'm good. And you told them the story, didn't you?"

"Hey, it was an appropriate time to tell it. At least they know Spider-Man can drink his ass off without a chance of a hangover."

"Remind me to not to challenge you to a drinking contest." said Sonson.

"Trust me, that's not something to really brag about."

"I guess me and Ororo will have to tell our dear savage man that you're going to deny his request." Betsy said while laughing with Ororo.

"Yes, and he's the best at what he does and blah, blah, blah. But forget about that, let's talk now! So what's everybody been up to these days?"

Ororo was the first one to speak, "Well, Charles is thinking of taking a trip around the world to find abandoned mutants so that he can help them integrate within society and hopefully be accepted. I will be helping along with Logan and the others."

"So how's the institute?" asked Ryu.

"It's doing well so far until we had Magneto about to destroy Cerebro. Thank goodness that wasn't too much of a problem. We would've loved to see you if you can stay with us Betsy, your powers could really help us out, you know."

"Ororo, I love you and the rest of the institute like my family. But I have to stay in Britain so other mutants won't be persecuted by parliament. Believe me love, I'll be there one day to help you but until then, my life is with the British." Betsy said this with a sad smile on her face, it was hard for her to part with the X-Men since they helped her find a purpose in life but she wanted to help the rest of the mutants that couldn't help themselves.

"Don't worry, its understandable Betsy. You're always welcome to come back. So what have the rest of you been up to?"

Jill responded first, "Well, ever since Wesker's death, the B.S.A.A. and I have been trying our best to make sure no epidemics happen like that again. There's so much research into all these diseases that even some of our chief scientists are wondering how such a strand can be released to the public," She then looked to Ororo, "Ororo, I'm sure it hits you in the heart since all this took place in Africa when all of this was happening. I'm truly sorry for all those that were infected and suffered."

Hearing this, Ororo closed her eyes and could only imagine what happened during her absence away from the mother continent. "It's okay Jill. If it was up to me, I would've torn that bastard apart piece by piece and torture him until he didn't want to live. How dare he do that to my people!" After the last sentence, an violent aura of wind appeared around her, she was levitating and her eyes were void of her ocean blue pupils. Seeing that her anger was getting the best of her, SonSon and Psylocke rushed over quickly to prevent any damage from being done inside the room or the house.

"Ororo, don't let your anger take over you! Remember, Wesker is dead and the people of Africa is safe! So please calm down!" Betsy pleaded to her friend.

"Yes, what she said. Also, remember that you're in my home and I'd like to leave it damage-free you know! Storm, just calm down! Breathe and exhale slowly, okay?" SonSon asked.

Now sensing that her anger was taking over, she calmed herself down. She didn't need any attention from the other guests, luckily it was only a small breeze in the area. After finally calming down, she levitated back into her seat and her pupils came back. Her emotions got the best of her again when it came to that subject, it was just too sensitive to her. She was thankful she had friends to help her when she got like this unlike when she was younger and there was nobody around to help or care for her.

After regaining her composure, she breathed and exhaled as SonSon said and her body was steadily returning to normal. She was so ashamed of her episode and immediately apologized to SonSon for her actions.

"SonSon, please forgive me. I'm sorry I let my emotions take the best of me, it was only a small relapse. Those emotions just...they just welled up in me and I felt like some of it had to come out. Again, I'm really sorry about that."

SonSon understood where she was coming from; having some unknown force just attack your home like that, she knew all too well about seeing that she was the the third generation in the Sun Wukong line and that many challengers and villains all wanted control of the village or the powers they could gain from it. Seeing that she was apologizing, she saw that she needed some comfort. She went up and hugged Ororo knowing that she meant no harm in what she just did.

"Ro, it's ok. Don't worry. I understand way too well what it's like for some person to invade your home like that, believe me. It's ok, don't beat yourself up too much, it was only a brief moment and nobody got hurt." SonSon talked in such a comforting and smoothing voice that Ororo let a tear fall from her eye.

"SonSon, thank you so much. I'm very lucky to have a friend like you."

Seeing that she was happy, everybody got up and joined in on the hug too. They all wanted to comfort Ororo.

Seeing this brought a warm smile from her, so many friends were there and it made her really happy to know that she had so many people care about her.

"Thanks everybody. I've finally calmed down so let's get back to this catching up."

Everybody sat back down in their respective seats and proceeded to continue on about their lives.

"So what are the two fighting ice cream flavors, vanilla and strawberry up to?" Peter asked with a grin.

Ken was a bit peeved at that but he let it go seeing that since it was Spider-Man, he'd make a joke about anything.

"That's very funny," Ken said with a hint of obvious sarcasm, "but to answer your question, I've been running my company since I inherited it from my dad about 6 years ago. Got me an MBA from Princeton so I'm not just all talk. Oh yeah, my wife Eliza is pregnant with our first kid so that's something I'm looking forward too."

"Congratulations." said Betsy.

"Heh, thanks. Knowing Ryu, he's probably still fighting. The only reason he's dressed up is because Chun-Li forced him to. There was no way, not even in a frozen hell she was gonna let him wear that gi to something like this."

"I'm vanilla?" Ryu asked with some confusion.

"You do wear a white gi, right?" asked Jin.

"Yeah, but-"

"Just answer the question buddy." Ken said to his old friend.

Clearing his throat, he readied himself for his answer. "Well, I'm still wandering the world still challenging as many people as possible for a fight. I love battling and finding out what the world has to offer. I live to fight!"

"Ok, if that's the case, how did you and Chun-Li hook up? I know she halted your way from doing all this 'traveling' and what not." Peter said this with a lot of conviction in his words.

That's when Ryu started blushing, "Well...she was very...persuasive. That's all I'm saying."

"Did she rape you or did you willingly sleep with her?" asked Hayato.

"What?! She didn't rape me and a man has needs too. We did it sometimes and she said we were a couple all of a sudden, she wasn't letting me go. I mean it's not bad dating her, she can be a bit much at times but she's really a sweet girl and I like dating her."

"You still haven't answered the question about your 'traveling' since you're dating her." Peter reminded him.

"*sighs* She said I can still travel the world looking for more opponents but she wants me to be in contact with her every now and then. She does want me to stay the next two weeks with her though so I'll do that."

"So she's not worried about you cheating or anything like that?" Jin asked.

"I haven't been in relationships with women like that. Actually, she's the first girlfriend I've ever had."

This caused the guys to widen their eyes except Hayato who merely raised an eyebrow while the girls except SonSon squealed and went around him trying to gain some info about the relationship.

"So what's it like dating her?" Betsy asked.

"I already know what she's like but I want to hear from you." Jill was a bit enthusiastic asking the question. Who knew women got so worked up from asking about relationships?

"Yes, you must tell us. A big, strong man like you must really know how to treat a woman, right?" Ororo was fluttering her eyes while asking Ryu.

Seeing that he was constantly getting suffocated with questions that he wasn't normally used to, the guys decided to intervene in their "interview" so they could get back to what they were doing before. No guy should have to go through this. He was actually a bit embarrassed about it seeing that it was so new to him.

"Hey ladies, you're not a journalist unlike moi so stop badgering him about his love life." Peter felt that he had to do something because he knew how Ryu felt, it was the same way when he first started dating Mary Jane Watson back in high school. So much scrutiny all because of some self-made hierarchical statuses that were created just to create some sort of system to ensure everybody that knew what their "role" was.

But back to the current situation at hand.

Ken patted Ryu's back removing some of the awkwardness of the situation. "Hey ladies, ladies. This is Ryu's first relationship so let's let him figure it out as it progresses. It's only fair for him to figure out how crazy women can be at times."

Hearing this, Jill had no choice but to retort back, "Hold up blondie. What makes you think men can't be just as crazy as women?"

Sensing a heated conversation, Peter decided to quell it down by being the voice of reason and hoping to go back to the way it was.

"Guys, guys!"

Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"Listen, as much as it seems interesting to delve into Ryu's romance life, weren't we talking about what we were up to? Sorry for that Ryu."

"Don't worry. I'm normally not used to questions like that and it's ok. When somebody has a question for me, I normally answer with my fists. It's a bit unusual but I have no problem talking about it. But Peter's right, let's get back to see what's going on with our lives."

"So who's the next person to talk?" asked Ken looking around in the circle.

"Well, of course I'm still operating Blodia and trying to defend my world. So what about Mr. Lightsaber here?" Jin making a reference to Hayato.

Hayato closed his eyes and sighed at the Mech Operator's statement but looked past through it so he could answer the question.

"Well, it's actually a shock that I could be here seeing that I come from a very dark and dangerous future." For some reason, he was stoic at times when talking, not revealing many emotions.

Ken realized what he said was true. "Wait, that's right. So how were you able to get an invitation?"

"Well, seeing that Cable and I both come from two different alternate realities in which the future is under some tyrannical rule, he decided to aid my cause. If I'm correct, his father gave him an invitation but he turned it down seeing that the future needed more help than him attending a party. So he actually visited my world and I actually did take the invitation. We've helped each other out after the wars and that we both have similar situations so I'm here."

Ororo couldn't help but be worried for the future the way it was described. "I really hope Nathan is safe. I know he can take care of himself but he is the son of our leader so I can only pray that he's safe."

"Don't worry. Cable's alright, he knows the future on the back of his hand just like I do. He said that nobody, not even his parents should be worried about him. He's doing pretty damn fine on his own if you ask me." Hayato reassured not only Ororo but everybody else in the circle.

"You know that only brings down the mood of the atmosphere, right?" Which was Jin's response after hearing the description of the future.

"Hey, you was the one that asked. I'm just the one that told you the truth. Truth is a bitter medicine when not swallowed right."

Coming from different universes and lives. Not everybody understood what life was exactly like for the others. Everybody was so different in their own way, they had problems to encounter, people to care for, lives to save, thrive for a better future or humanity. The thing was that it was interesting for them because they did learn how everyone else was and what unique experiences they had. These experiences further helped everybody become friends and understand just a tad bit more about life than what they did know.

Betsy was one of these people to think like that, she always wondered how everybody can unite for one purpose. If people from different beings from different corners of the universe could band together to defeat a menace to not only the world but every dimension, then why couldn't mutants and humans live in harmony?

Moving past her thoughts, she looked at one of the three hosts for tonight's gathering. She did take a good look at the young simian woman; she was a bit mature than when she first met her 10 years ago and was a bit amazed that she went through a transformation that was a little more appropriate but still stay true to herself.

"Hey, SonSon." spoke the scarred telepathic.

She perked up being engrossed hearing what everybody else was up to.

"Seeing that you're our host, I feel it should be right for you to speak up seeing that this is your house and you are one of the hosts. Wouldn't you say?"

She laughed at the statement but did agree, "I believe you're right. Well, where do I start?" Peter was the most excited also interested into seeing what she was up to even though she told him already that time on the Empire State Building.

"Well, I moved from China to start my exploration of the world seeing that I wouldn't want to stay in my village forever. It was such an interesting adventure for me seeing that I've been on numerous others with my dad and grandfather but not on the global scale. I decided to move to New York City seeing that a good amount of my friends were from here such as Spidey and the rest of the X-Men and also that many tourists in China do come from here. I figured 'Why not start here?' and tada, here I am!"

"But how did you become roommates with the Succubi queen and Chun-Li?" asked Jin.

"Well, I always kept in contact with Chun-Li even after the war. It was her idea since in all honesty, she wanted to get away from the office and just live a 'normal' life as she sees fit and no hassle from her superiors and whatnot. So we met in China seeing that's our native country and talked about it for weeks. She had a lot of money saved up seeing that she's one of the highest ranked detectives in the Asian region so she said we could reside here. For Morrigan, well she just wanted to have fun and she kept in contact with us via visiting our dreams and such. She said some stuff like she wanted her dad to leave her alone for a bit and let her live her life as she sees fit. We met about half a year later and moved in together and now we're here. I am surprised we were able to get an apartment of this caliber in this kind of neighborhood, they're pretty expensive."

Everybody took a good careful look, and she was right. It did cost them a pretty penny to live here. Luckily, Morrigan registered herself as a diplomat of Scotland and Chun-Li saved up a lot of money from her teaching Kung fu to the less-privileged children and constant Interpol assignments so money was barely an obstacle to them.

"Yeah, too bad I can't live here," Peter muffled under his breath.

"It's just an apartment that costs more money. You're not really missing that much." which was SonSon's response.

"Yeah, that's what you think. You would think that the city would say, 'Oh, that Spider-Man's such a good fellow, let's give him an apartment as a show of our thanks.' But instead it's," then he switched to his boss's voice mocking him, "That web-crawling menace needs to be taken to a prison and put down! The job for protecting the city belongs to the city's finest and that's that!"

The circle started laughing at his imitation and the jovial atmosphere started to affect Peter as well. It was always good to have friends like these at times when you felt like the rest of the world was against you.

A light went off in Jin's head. "That reminds me, I heard about you two guys little stint with some guy wearing a rhino armor if I'm correct? How did that happen exactly?"

"Simple, he was interrupting my sleep." was SonSon's simple response.

This left the webbed hero's photojournalist alter-ego in awe.

"Wait. He was interrupting...your sleep?"

"Uh, yeah. It's hard to sleep in the city as it is and I was exhausted. And now I hear police sirens and constant crashing thinking 'What the hell's going on here?' I look outside and a part of Central Park is a mess so I go outside and I see Spider-Man and this huge guy fighting in a big part of the park. So I help out and I save the night of course."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Save the night? Don't lie to our friends. She did help, that's not a lie. And I had him on the ropes, only a few more hits and he would've been ripe for the picking."

SonSon raised her eyebrow at this, "Really? Because if I'm correct, you was walking with an injured rib and almost died that night if I didn't save your ass. You can send me chocolates and roses later, actually...no, send me a fruit basket instead."

The two heroes were bickering with each other saying who saved who first. Their friends started laughing minus Hayato who only had an amused grin on his face probably thinking of something that some of the others were mostly likely thinking.

Hayato was the one to speak up, "You two are acting like a couple with the constant yelling at each other. Just date already if that's the case."

Ken followed after, "Hell yeah! You guys should just kiss and make up. I'll even get a reservation for you at a five-star restaurant if you want."

Hearing the two comments, Peter and SonSon looked at each other and blushed, then moving away to their original seats in the group.

"We're not a couple... We just have our differences." SonSon muttered under her breath.

"Yeah, we're just good friends that have our differences and argue every now and then. Just like Ken and Ryu." Peter said. As much as he liked her, he wanted to be discreet but it wasn't working at his own discretion.

Ken was the one to speak up at that statement, "Well, as true as that may be. We're both men here and we don't blush when people say things about our friendship so we kind of got you on that one."

Having heard enough, SonSon wanted to move past that topic and on to something else. "Ok, ok! Can we please move on from us? Let's just move on and discuss the current us instead of trying to hook us up."

As the night went on, everybody reveled in the food, drinks, company, and discussed everything that they could possibly think of ranging from childhood to social problems. It was a good way for them to somehow reconnect because they had no idea when they were able to do something like this again. It was a decade since the last time they all gathered like this and it could be their last because they had no idea what the future held for them.

Now, as their friends were conversing to each other, Peter kept trying to argue about the night when they met again but he was trying to get her to warm up to him so he let her have that battle, it's not like she was wrong in the first place. They did move on and started talking about the apartment and what it was like traveling the world and living in New York City with all the cultural mixing and whatnot. They was so engrossed into their conversation that they didn't notice anybody looking at them with certain smiles and possible innuendo going through their minds. It's like they were in their own world and all their cares of the world around them were thrown to the wind in reckless abandon. It really couldn't be denied seeing that they were so touchy-feely with each other and had a certain glint in their eyes as they talked with each other, they did pay attention to their friends every now and then but their attention. It was kind of amusing and enjoyable for their friends to see both of them have fun with each other as the night went by. Why didn't they just get together already?

The hours went by really rapidly, by the time they knew it, it was already 11:45. The number of heroes started to slowly dwindle and a few of them were even a bit too intoxicated to move even an inch from their seats (this was taken care of by Morrigan seeing that she all too personally knew how hangovers felt from her nocturnal romps in the realm of the living). As Jin and the others started to leave, they all exchanged information seeing that they had no idea when they would ever have a meeting like this again and they most likely didn't want to wait another decade before they had a chance to hang out again. Peter even found it a bit sad that all his friends were leaving and it mad him think of the old days when they all worked together to save the universe from a catastrophe. Seeing that he felt like it was time for him to leave soon, he had one more thing to do that could seal the night.

As the owners of the apartment were seeing their guests off, Peter spotted SonSon with Chun-Li and Morrigan near the door. This moment, it was now or never and never was a REALLY long time for him in his line of work.

"Hey SonSon!"

She heard her name being called as he was approaching her and left the other two to go chat with him for a bit.

"Hey, what's up?" She was a bit curious to see what he wanted seeing that everybody else was leaving.

"Well... I was wondering if we could um- That one day we could-," This was really weird to him at the moment, he always had some slick retort when facing off against a villain, even the likes of Doctor Doom and Magneto, but he was tongue-tied in asking a girl out. He thought after Mary Jane was absent that he would be more open with the opposite sex but he still realized that there would always be some problems with asking somebody out.

Taking a deep breath, he finally was able to blurt out the question he was trying to ask all this time, he just needed the right moment.

"What I was trying to say earlier was... do you want to go out one night, just the two of us? It can be just as friends if you want." He crossed his fingers in his head hoping she'd say yes. It was all up to her at the moment.

"Is this a date Mr. Parker?" His immediate response was a nod.

She put her hand under her chin and closed one of her eyes thinking about it creating some suspense for him. "Well..." she was contemplating on the invitation but in actuality she was really having fun with him a bit until she finally gave her answer.

"Yes, I will go on a date with you." Hearing this made him want traverse up the walls of the building and scream at the top of his lungs but decided to play it cool, he is an adult after all.

"All right, thanks a lot." He immediately grabbed her in a hug not minding who saw it; he was just really happy that he did the thing he was finally able to do what he said he was going to do.

"I like you too Peter but come on, it's just a date. I hope you find a good restaurant because I don't want no cheap one. I'm not a pricey girl but I'd like to be treated like a lady for once if you don't mind since I've never actually been on date before. So roll out the carpet for me."

To say he was excited was an understatement, he was truly ecstatic. He finally got a date with the girl he secretly admired from afar and he couldn't wait. One thing did surprise him though: she said she had never been on a date before so could this be her first one ever? He wanted to ask her about it but he didn't want to invade her privacy, he knew too much about that when he had his mystic moments with Madame Web when she would drag him out of his word into hers at any given moment.

"Well, I'll be sure to treat you as good as possible. Besides, I'm Spider-Man, you'll be good with me. Sure I'm making a low salary from the Bugle because J.J. is stingy with the pay, and I'm buying more materials for my costumes and I'm getting hurt every now and then from some maniac but you have nothing to worry about."

"Uh-huh... Well, make sure you get a reservation for us at a good restaurant or I'll be really mad at you. Well, I see you're gonna be off soon so I'm gonna go help the girls clean up. Oh yeah, our date will be in two weeks so find a restaurant quick fast." She waved goodbye to him so she could start calling taxis for the inebriated ones still there and cleaned up the stuff that was scattered about.

Getting ready to leave, he saw Ken, Ryu, and Bobby (Iceman) and they personally congratulated him on a job well done.

"It's about time you finally dropped your balls and asked her out. Everybody could tell that you're feeling her." Ken said to him while Ryu nodded.

Bobby was also proud of him. He knew what he went through with Shadowcat and the other women in his life so it was nice to see him get some possible romance stirring in his hectic lifestyle. "I'm glad to see you finally have something to look forwards to. I know being Spider-Man takes a toll on you but you deserve it, I should know, I'm an X-Man."

"Whoa, is this Bobby "Iceman" Drake congratulating me on a job well done? You may have frozen hell over." In response to that, Bobby blew a couple of ice shards at him and Peter immediately shivered feeling it. He laughed it off with his rival/friend and continued talking.

As the quartet of heroes conversed, there was a sudden clearing of the throat from a feminine-sounding voice about 3 feet from where they were standing.

Chun-Li was standing right there and she had somebody in particular that she wanted to talk to.

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation boys but I need to borrow one wall-crawling, web-swinging photographer for a second. You guys don't mind, do you?"

Bobby was the one to speak up at that, "Well, we were-" He was immediately interrupted as Chun-Li whisked him away.

"Thanks guys!" And off she went with Peter.

Now he was completely confused, what in the world did Chun-Li want with him? He just asked his friend on a date and everything was going fine until that moment she snatched him away to the terrace so they could have a talk. Upon reaching the terrace, he also saw Morrigan there sitting on one of her bat-themed chairs. Ok...this was getting to be a bit too weird for him, what exactly did these women want with such serious expressions plastered on their faces?

"Um, ladies? What exactly is going on? Are you being possessed by somebody or something because this is really weird how you just dragged me out here without explaining."

The two women looked at each other to see who was going to go first and Chun-Li decided that it would be her seeing that she was more perceptive of the situation and wanted to get some clarity on it.

"Peter, if I'm correct, you asked SonSon out on a date, right?" Her voice had a bit of skepticism in it but he answered anyway.

"Uh...yeah. What exactly is this about?"

"Peter. I don't know if she's ever told you this, but that would be her first date. She's not really into romantic relationships and I know how much you like her."

"What are you talking about?"

This time, it was Morrigan's turn to speak up. "We can see it with your body language. What we're saying is that she's never had a boyfriend or gone out on a date with the opposite sex before."

"Really? Then why are you telling me this, shouldn't she tell me this herself?"

"We feel like she should also but I think she's a bit afraid of scaring you off so that's why she didn't tell you. Ever since you've asked her to go out a few moments ago, she's had a smile on her face that really indicates she's really happy about you asking her out. We're her roommates and friends so we're going to make sure you don't do anything to hurt her or scar her." After saying that, Chun-Li went up to Peter and put her hands on his shoulders looking up with a serious expression.

"Peter, please make sure you treat her well on this date and be nice to her. She may be a different species than us but she's still a woman inside." She then brought her mouth to his ears and whispered, "And if you do hurt her, I'll get Interpol and S.H.I.E.L.D. on your ass so fast that you won't ever take a picture again." She then took her mouth away and switched from that menacing tone to a cheerful one, "So you understand?"

Surprisingly, her threats didn't too much; most likely because he was Spider-Man and he was used to threats from the abundance of villains that came across his way. The only thing on his mind that his friend had never been out on a date, he would think during the past 10 years that she would find somebody to be in a relationship with but that wasn't the case. He understood her friends' concerns about the anticipated date and why they felt a bit protective of her at the moment. If that was the case, he would try his best to make sure that she'd be treated the best way she could with very few to no problems at all. All that mattered to him was that she was comfortable enough to go out with him and be happy.

"Yes, I like you a lot Mr. Spider-Man so I would really hate to have to be coerced by Chun-Li to do something to you. Remember, we succubi can kill a man just by using his amorous desires against him. The thing is I can look into people's souls and I can tell you have a considerable heart so I'm able to trust you. Remember, she's our friend and we're only looking out for her and her best interests." Morrigan added and moved over to him and made traced a heart-shaped mark on his chest.

Taking the words into consideration, he figured they were right since she had never had a significant other or gone on a date before. He would be treading on some waters if she got hurt but decided to risk it anyways.

"Listen, I know that my past with women isn't exactly the most _perfect _but you can believe that I won't do anything to hurt her. I've already done that with MJ and Kitty and nobody deserves to go through that kind of pain. So with your blessings, can I take her on a date?" He grinned with a smile of so much radiance that he could have given the sun a run for its money.

"You already have our blessings, you know. We're just telling you to be careful of her feelings; you can either get kikouken'ed or have your balls kicked courtesy of me and then be castrated by Morrigan. I like you Peter, but SonSon's happiness comes first." She was very serious about this date appointment. Her friend/roommate's happiness was on the line and she didn't want to endanger that.

"You're very graphic with your...description of what you'll do to me. Man, I swear you could give Stalin or Genghis Khan a run for cruel and unusual punishments but you have nothing to worry about. Now that that's all and done, can I go back inside now?"

"Fine, go ahead. And have a good night once you leave and thanks for the dance." Chun-Li then waved him off goodbye with a smile and a hug while Morrigan did the same also.

"Au bonsoir, Mr. Parker." Morrigan then blew a kiss at him with a flirty wave of her fingers.

After the talk, Peter really thought about it. How was he going to make her feel comfortable during their date? She had never been so close to a male like that before so he was going to have to take careful steps to make sure she didn't feel weird and turn into a giant monkey and level the restaurant, that would be bad for both of them. Well, he did have two weeks to prepare for the date but made sure not to underestimate the planning that was needed to make sure everything went smoothly.

Finally arriving at the door, the others were surprisingly, still waiting on him. He broke down what happened outside on the terrace and they all laughed at him. For some reason, it was always amusing to see Peter involved in these crazy circumstances. He did have one thing to ask Ken though.

"Ok, ok. We've had our laughs and we have our gift bags. And Ken, can you hook me up with that restaurant thing you was talking about? It'd be much appreciated."

"No problem man, I got your back. I gotta bless the buds every now and then, ya know?"

"Good looking out, you're kind of saving my ass here since she she did say she wants a nice restaurant. Well, it's time for us to be out of here. So Ryu, you're gonna be staying here with Chun-Li?"

"Yeah, she really hates it at times when I'm gone on my journeys so I'll reside here for about two weeks just to make her happy. After that, I'll be looking for someone to fight again. It was nice seeing you guys again. Who knew 10 years would have went by so quickly?"

Peter thought about the past decade. He encountered a lot of things during that time window."Yeah, time flies by when you're facing maniacal villains, saving the world or the universe, or doing some kind of feat that would make Hercules crap his pants. Yep, just a regular day for us guys. Well, see you and have a good night guys. Until next time." The four men gave each other a fist bump and went on their way.

And with that everybody left, Ken went into a car to reach the JFK airport so he could take his private jet back to Los Angeles; Bobby and Peter caught up on the past with each other as they were walking to the train station. He told him of his little crush on SonSon and Bobby of all people was giving him advice on how to just let it flow. He wasn't romantically illiterate, he did have a girlfriend before but this was a new experience for him. It made him think of high school again of when he was just the science nerd and not many people, especially the girls paid much attention to him. He actually laughed at the memory. They both spotted the nearest train station and went to their mutual destination.

After arriving at the 42nd St. train station, they both got off talking a bit seeing that they had their own separate ways to go.

"Well, I've given you all the advice I could possibly think of, the rest is up to you." Bobby said while giving him a thumbs up.

"Yeah, there are some things I know but some of it is ok. *Yawns* Aw man, I'm tired. So how are you gonna reach the Institute?"

"I'll just take the bus halfway and then maybe ice my way home or something. Nothing too big man." Peter arrived at the R train while Bobby got ready to leave the station to catch his bus at the Port Authority bus stop which was going his way.

"Well, that's my bus and I'm out of here. I'll catch you again and it was real cool seeing you again and I know what 'cool' is," Peter smirked and rolled his eyes at the joke, "But you should come visit one day if you got the chance."

"I'll be sure to. Give Professor Xavier and Dr. McCoy my regards. See ya next time man." And with that, they gave each other a fist bump and a hug which meant that it was time to go.

After the purchase of his ticket, Bobby quickly got on his bus and Peter just waited for the train. So many thoughts went through his head; the reunion of him and his friend, the saving of the old woman, the recent party and to top it all off, he finally got a date with his crush. Nothing could be better than the last one to him, to him, it made the night all worth it.

One thing he did think about was Chun-Li's and Morrigan's words earlier tonight about her not having a boyfriend or a date in her life. It really made him contemplate on how to go with it. Maybe there was a reason on why it was like that. Was it her village, the people who wanted to possibly to go out with her or some traumatic experience that made her like this, he didn't know but he would figure that out later. He had two weeks to prepare for it though. Also, he was tired and lucky he had no work the next day so he could sleep in and just unwind and hope nothing or somebody like Electro or Mysterio messed up his electricity, it was hot after all. The only thing that was on his mind was the date in two weeks. He only hoped that everything would go as well as he planned.

* * *

This chapter was a bit long so I apologize about that. Good reading to you all though.


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